Seriously, why do they always converse at night while I'm trying to sleep? It'll always be revealed the next morning or a couple of days later. Can they chat privately in their room or something? At least, I don't have to hear about their so-called secret meetings.

"Have you ever gotten in contact with your family, Alicia? I mean, your extended family?" My father asks.

My head shoots up. Extended family? From my mom's side? No way! I never met my uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, and so forth from her side.

"No. No contact. They didn't know I existed. My mom never let anyone over at her house," she replies, "Unless it's for her." Hypocrisy.

Bummer! But still, I sneak out of my room and stop at the top of the stairwell to hear them closely. There's light downstairs, but everything appears to be foggy. My eyes aren't tempting me to close them yet. I'm tired from a long day of school. It's the first day back from December break and the workload is piling. It could be for that reason.

I only met dad's side of the family because they come over every Christmas for a feast. The only time that my dad takes his time off for family. They keep talking back and forth.

"Any grandparents?"

"Christmas has passed, Phil. It's January..."

"I just wanna know, Alicia. We should invite whatever family you are secured to talk with," my dad presses on.

"No grandparents, Phil. I don't even know my cousins, aunts, or uncles. The only grandpa that I've heard about was Terri from Markus. He lived in the basement. I sometimes hear him makin' ruckus until my mom tells him to shut up," she says, "I thought it's just me dozing off into sleep or a nightmare. I was a very imaginative child."

"What?" Dad says appalled. He heard about possible abuse, not literally. There are many things under the surface that she is not letting go of.

My mother curses beneath her breath. It's silent as if she's saying sti. She prefers to not swear.

"....Ever heard back from them?"

"Markus is gone... He ran away... I don't know where he went. I heard a loud pop from the basement one night. Mom forced us to stay in our rooms while she cleaned up the mess. My grandpa is dead, Phil."

"Are you okay, Alicia? You look very pale... I think it's time you see a psychologist. How come you barely say anything about this?"

Her breathing quickens. She sounds like she's about to go into tears.

"Blocked from memory. I don't want to talk about it ever again."

How much did mom bear?

It's a Friday night and I am spending the night at Blathnaid's house. It's been raining for a while and the fog is moving in. We are texting each other on our phones, despite being in Blath's room. Yeah, we're idiots. We send brain-hurting videos to each other and see how we would react to them. It's 2052 and people in the past expected us to be very technologically advanced. Well, we are more technologically advanced than them, but Earth is not a futuristic utopia. We have long ways to go. There is even a chance that we will not make it there at all.

I look at Blath's clock and it's past midnight. Her parents have already gone to sleep. They wouldn't fuss as long as we don't wake them up. The lights in her room start to flicker. We look up at the light and think nothing of it.

"The lights here haven't been replaced for several years," she explains, "I wouldn't be surprised if they went out."

As if on cue, the light goes out, leaving us in the dark. We stare at each other for a minute before chuckling. Blath goes onto her phone and gives me this weird look.

"What?" I ask.

"Is your phone dead?" She replies.

I check my phone and it won't turn on. It's dead. The hell? I charged it like thirty minutes ago. "Yeah, it's dead."

The wind outside starts to pick up. We can hear the wind push against the window, giving off an eerie howl. I feel goosebumps all over my skin as if there's a sudden drop in temperature. The furnace is running, but winter has rolled inside.

"Is there someone in here other than just us?" Blathnaid asks out loud. We all look around. The room has a creepy silence to it.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Something is tapping on the window. We all shoot our heads towards it. We are on the second floor and there are no trees or anything to make it possible to climb up. The tapping continues. Blathnaid gets up and opens the window. A fluorescent fog creeps inside like a ghoulish boat rolling on an ominous night. The Flying Dutchman is not yet in sight. Blath starts swerving around, losing balance. She rubs her forehead before she collapses onto her bedroom floor.

"Blath!" I call out to her in a panic.

The fog begins to swirl near the bedroom door. It swirls faster and faster until it manifests into an elderly gentleman. He has short grey hair, sunken eyes, and is wearing the typical grandpa from the 2000s- Denim jeans, orange and black shirt with a denim jacket. He has a rough look about him as if he has seen enough of time itself.

"Who are you?" I confront, "What have you done to my friend?"

"Easy, Naomi, she is just sleeping," he responds plainly.

"How do you know my name?" Uneasiness rises in my voice.

"I am from your mother's side of the family and I have been long forgotten."

"My mom never really talks about her side of the family," I comment, "Well, a week ago, she did, but all of them are dead."

"I am Terri, your great-grandpa. I need to inform you about a great challenge up ahead," he clarifies.

"Why are you telling me this," I fuss, "Why am I the only one that will be facing a great challenge up ahead?"

"You're the only one that is open to see the truth."

Is it because I eavesdropped on my parents' conversation a week ago? The thought of him watching me days before is putting me on edge.

"What truth?" I ask, starting to get annoyed.

"Alica's half-brother, your uncle, is coming. Your mom may have sought the lord's help, but she won't remain hidden forever. She has not been moving. Your uncle is not human..."

It all sounds bogus to me and which uncle?

He then adds, "Long ago when your mother was a child, I contacted your Markus, because he was suffering as much as I did." His appearance transforms into an American soldier in World War II. He now appears in his late twenties, but still had a rough look about him-Shell-shocked. "I was a soldier in the deadliest of wars and watched many of my comrades die. I was neglected by my own parents and your grandma, Elisse."

Never heard about her.

"Who is Uncle Markus and how the hell is he not human? Last time I checked, all my family are humans," I commented sceptically. I thought he was dead too because mom did say he ran away. I have doubts that he survived.

Great Grandpa Terri's eyes roll back into his head. I flinch as the fog in the room turns pitch black and engulfs the Blathnaid's room. Five seconds have elapsed until the dark fog fades away and we are in a massive library with statues of warriors, sorcerers, and other creatures. The floors were made out of frosted diamonds with symbols that I can't comprehend. The walls are made out of bronze marble. What lies ahead of us is a young man with long brown hair, brown eyes, and looks malnourished, scanning through a book with a leather covering. Beside him, he has a notebook and a pen like a student that is taking notes to study for the next exam. Well, we take notes on tablets now. This must have been long ago.

"This is another plane that is more vast than the plane we lived on. We can get to it from the portals that give you so much energy. You'll have to die to enter this library. Don't worry, no one will notice and you will still be alive once you leave the realm. I stumbled on this after running away from the house, in order to end my own life. I took one of them and brought it back to Earth with me. That was a fatal mistake. The book's power destroyed me. I am now doomed to be the keeper of this ancient library. You are likely to survive if you read it in this plane rather than on Earth. My old body couldn't handle it, but I absorbed some of its power."

Now that was the popping sound mother heard loud ago. Terri exploded.

And I thought Markus ran away?

"Who's that on the floor?" I point to the boney guy, not in tune with what Terri is saying.

"That's your Uncle Markus, I gave him this knowledge that I learned after seeing what my daughter has become. She abused him and manipulated his siblings into hating him. He was bullied at school and his grades were so bad that he had to be held back. Your grandma is a compulsive liar. She lied about Markus not having siblings with his father. Markus has an older sister, Grace. She wasn't much of a total nutjob back then and she raised her fine. She was a better person until she got into drugs and managed to hook up with a drug dealer. She lost her husband, bringing that anger out on Markus."

He mumbles damning words beneath his breath.

"Why would she lie to Markus about him not having siblings? She obviously had kids that were younger than Markus."

"She wanted to make her first husband look bad and make Markus look like he inherited his malice from him. On top of that, she stole his child support for her addiction. She wanted his siblings to hate him, so they won't feel sorry for him when she beats the crap out of him."

What the absolute hell?

"Was my mom his half-sister?"

"Yes. The youngest one, actually. She was the only one that actually cares about him."

My mom isn't the craziest of all moms. She is superstitious and overprotective of me, which is very annoying. George finds her weird. Megan makes fun of me about how weird my mom is even in front of a crowd while Blathnaid doesn't care about it. Parents are most likely loose-headed nowadays. The Influencer Age was hypnotic. It's nice to know that my mother was good enough to see through all things happening in her childhood and never took it out on me.

What has happened to her? Was she abused too?

"He did a ritual that turned him into another being. He wanted revenge on his bullies and family; however, he killed innocent people along the way and he submitted to his wrath... He did have some good in him left when he attacked your mom."

"He attacked my mom?" I ask dumbfoundedly.

"Yes. Don't you notice how your mom only has two fingers, along with a deep engraving scar on her right hand and arm?" He replies with a hint of disappointment.

"She told me it was from a car crash when she was younger," I said defensively.

"She was afraid to tell you the truth."

"I get that," I raise my tone a bit, "Why are you telling me this? Should you tell my mother about this, instead of her own daughter? I know my mom is traumatised from this and all, but she needs to know that her brother is after her again."

"He will smite your entire family!" He yells back, losing his patience, "And he won't care if he kills you too!"

A blast of cold wind shivers around me. "I can see the future. Your mom will feverishly pray to God and he will still return! You all will be dead! If you do what I say, you will lose much less!" He booms.

A wave of weakness shoots through me, making me collapse to my knees.

"What do you want me to do? As you can see, I am freaking powerless when it comes to you!" I muster up what I can speak until my frustration hits at the last sentence.

"In order to defeat Markus, you must do the same thing that we did. You must travel to this plane and find the ritual that will transform you. You must do this in a haste. There's not much time. I will protect you from Markus's wrath as much as I can, but I can't promise you that it will be forever," he explains to me carefully in a strangely calm manner. Well, better than being impatient.

Um, we are here in the library now. Are we actually here?

So much for an old man's important life lessons...

The black fog returns again for another five seconds. Terri disappears into thin air. After he does, the fog dissipates and I am back in Blathnaid's room again. Blathnaid is still unconscious on the floor. I scoot over and nudge her, trying to wake her up.

Her eyes slowly open and she winces at me. She has a mixture of fright and disorientation all over her face. "What in the world?" She utters while sitting up.

"Do you remember anything?" I ask her.

"All I remember opening up the window and seeing the fog roll in," she answers tiredly. Then, her panic settles in, "What happened to you? Did you faint as well?"

"No... An old man appeared," I reply. I don't know what to actually say without sounding ridiculous.

"What did he do to you?" She asks, very concerned.

"He didn't harm me," I see her sigh in her relief, "But he did tell me something."

Her relief didn't last, "What did he tell you?"

I go into thought. I decide whether I should tell the whole thing and make her more worried, tell a fracture of it, or tell a lie that can bite me in the arse later. Every second that I ponder, her anxiety for me strengthens. I am not looking forward to having two overprotective mothers.

"A great adversary of my family is returning. The same person that scarred my mother for life," I tell her while trying not to say too much.

"What? Who?" Her eyes widened into frightened puppy eyes.

I don't feel comfortable telling her that there is a monstrous family member that is on the hunt for my mom and her family. I don't know what to say other than-

"The same one that costs my mom her three fingers and arm."

Blathnaid has kept tabs on me, more than my mother. She always asks if I am safe and whatnot. It's only been freaking four days since the warning! I kind of got the feeling she has been secretly watching me around the school at any chance she'll get. Oh! Come on! It's not like my uncle will burst into the school just to whoop my ass. Blath's constant watch is making George and Megan suspicious because she is acting out of the ordinary.

"Is something going on between you two because Blath is watching you like a hawk?" Megan asks while sitting at our library table. We always sit at the table that's closest to the librarian's desk. It's because Megan is a total schmoozer to staff. It's a study hall and all four of us decided to go to the library. I thought it was going to be just Blath and I, but George and Megan decided to tag along. The only class where all four of us are together.

"It's nothing," I bluff. I know Blath won't say anything.

"But why is she acting strangely around you?" Megan pressures.

"Well, she and I hang out more than you guys ever do," I state.

"What is going on between you two?" Megan looks at Blathnaid, expecting her to give an answer, "If we're friends, you should tell us."

"I only know you as an acquaintance," Blath responds flatly.

"Oh, there is something going on," George comes in.

My brain beats itself within the walls of my skull. C'mon, I want this to end already, but I know it won't.

"It doesn't pertain to you," I remark to both of them. Don't they get the hint that we don't want to be bothered?

George and Megan glare at me. George is chewing his bottom lip while Megan's desperation to know everything is going to blow up a storm. If we did tell them anything, they would probably laugh it off or I would have to go to the office because they reported it out of fear for my safety. I don't want anyone else other than Blathnaid knowing. I hate it when others get involved in my personal life even if they're my friends.

"Oh, we're not friends?" Megan scowls.

"Maybe we are; however, I don't want anyone to get involved. It's very, very, very personal."

And very, very, very messed-up.

"Is it your mom?" George asks, "She does have an issue with me for no reason."

Well, from what I saw in the vision, my uncle looks similar to you in appearance, I thought, My uncle attacked my mom when she was a child. That's why.

"She is a psycho," Megan opines, "Luckily, her mom never does anything with me."

"She won't let me lay a step on her property," he tells her. He looks at me, "Did you say anything about me, Nao?"

"I didn't tell her anything," I shake my head, "Other than defending you."

"Naomi, why did you bring him into the house? You, get out and never set a foot on my property again," George mocks what my mom said to him when he first came over.

She was a very fearful mom that day. Her harsh words veiled her alarmed state.

"I didn't even know she was going to act that way," I defend, "She only knew your name. She does let me come over to your house with some requirements." I am not going to say that she makes me do a protection prayer before heading to his house and makes me do a cleansing when I return.

"Why would your mom prevent George from going into your house?" Megan asks.

I shrug.

"She sounded more freaked out rather than evil," George adds in, "I didn't do anything to her."

"What did you tell her?" Megan repeats what George said earlier.

I shrug my shoulders. I stare at her. I really have no idea why she keeps insisting on this so much even when I told her the truth.

"What did you tell her?" She pressed with a very serious tone, "Did you tell her that George has gone to jail, or is on drugs, or something?"

I stay silent. Blathnaid looks at me, silently begging for me to say something.

"Naomi, you can't just ignore me. You obviously did say something before he came over. What did you say about George that made your mom act up? You know that George is a good kid," she infuriates.

For Pete's sake, didn't she listen?!

I stand up and look her dead in the eye. It is the same one as my mother's. "I already told you. I didn't say anything bad about him. She only knew his name when I mentioned him as a friend," I said coldly. I angrily go on, "George did observe that my mom looked panicked rather than angry. My mom had a rough childhood. Didn't you notice that three of her fingers are missing and her right arm is disfigured? It was from a damn man that looked similar to George. I know it sounds quite ridiculous, but that man ruined her damn life. Even if she is a grown-up, she is suffering from trauma and I have never seen one night without her having a panic attack. It's like reliving a nightmare." I grab my books. Students and the librarian finally notice the commotion going on over here.

"Young lady, what is going on over there?" The librarian sternly asks.

"Just an argument over here," I casually explain, "And I am going to move before things get too heated."

Blathnaid also grabs her stuff and we both move to where the couches are, located in the corner closest to the library's entrance. Most of the couches are occupied, so George and Megan won't follow us here. Nevertheless, they can't without being scolded by the librarian. With Megan, she can probably start a rivalry against me since she is more popular or rants about it and gets people more on her side. Honestly, I don't care.

The rest of the day went by without incident. The time is now 7:34 p.m and after dinner. I am watching a drama on television. It's about how these chicks and dudes train and dance to perfection. My dad says that it's a ripoff of Dance Moms; however, the fights happen between the dancers. Good heavens, their arguments sometimes make my head explode. My mother never really watched television while growing up. In her old home, I mean orphanage, they only used the television to watch movies. She mostly read books and played on her phone. In her true old home, she played with dolls and toys.

My focus shifts as I can feel a slight tremor.

A truck going by? I thought.

The tremor intensifies for a moment before it backs down. Strange. Trucks don't shake the house that bad. Thunder can, but it's January.

As the place grows stranger, I feel it becoming hotter in my room. It's hot enough that I take my sweatshirt off. My light went out and I let out a small yelp.

What the hell is going on here?

A reddish glow fills the room. I shiver out of dread, despite the heat. The reddish aura feels wrathful, powerful, and unstable. If dad is here, he will scream out that the second holy war is upon us. It doesn't feel like a peaceful home anymore. If a portal to hell is nearby, this is what it feels like.

I wince out of my bedroom window. The sky is a lava red colour. The sun is so white that it's too intense to look at it. The landscape is a hellish world. Fire, hot desert, and boiling seas.

"Mom!" I call out to her while I open the door to find her.

No response.

"Mom!" I call out again, "Did you see what's go-"

What stifles me from saying anything is what lies at the edge of the hallway. A godawful shiny black creature with black wings and horns. Its skin is made out of obsidian. Its whole body is on fire. That awful creature has very sharp claws too. It seems to stare at something... What the hell is this thing doing in my house?! Did my dad piss off Satan?

I then look ahead to see the creature's target. It's mom... Mom is silently crying, silently pleading for help. Her back is against the wall on the other side of this floor. It seems all hope has perished in her world. They are similar in height, but mom is dominated by the power of the creature. I can hear the monster growl at every exhale. A growl that's lustful for death. I can see mom's anticipation of her inevitable doom. Dread and fearing a violent death. Her whole body is in a cold sweat and pales in contrast to the dark and fiery devil.

My mind breathes with elements that boil in cold temperatures, Markus...