The instant Flint removed his mask, every aspect of the demon’s appearance changed. In front of them stood a young woman with snow-colored hair and brows. Her angled bob, which fell just below her chin, had a slightly messy look, and was combed to the right side of her face, nearly covering her eye. An eye that wasn’t red at all, but a light blue. She was slightly taller than Rodrigo, but a good deal shorter than the demon they had been staring at a second ago. Even her clothes, while still black, were more modern.

Rodrigo was as baffled as the rest of his family looked, but kept his questions to himself for the moment.

“How did that mask allow you to impersonate a demon?” Resent asked.

“It lets me change into whatever I want my target, or in this case, targets, to see. If I want to be seen at all.” That’s why no one else saw her on the roof.

From her first word, Rodrigo recognized the girl’s voice as belonging to who he had mistaken for Flint’s accomplice. She wasn’t working with Flint. She was Flint. He must have heard her real voice when he was losing consciousness because his mind was too distracted by pain to be suckered into the illusion.

“Interesting, but not enough so to stop me from killing you,” Resent said.

“Another fight would be pointless. Not only would you lose, but we’re on the same side.”

“Let’s hear her out,” Rodrigo said grudgingly.

Apparently displeased with the idea, Resent returned control.

“First, my name is Adena. I’m sure you’re confused by my actions, but you should have at least realized it was never my aim to kill you.”

“How am I supposed to believe that after you burned my house down? That easily could’ve killed us all!”

Adena narrowed her eyes. “You can’t be this dense. Do you think if I was trying to kill you, you could have left, then reentered a burning building? I scouted the place out beforehand and made a path for you and your family to escape. And who do you think carried your unconscious body off the roof so you weren’t incinerated? No. If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead.”

Rodrigo paused because regardless of her bluntness, what she said made sense. “All right, but that still doesn’t explain why you’ve done everything you have.”

“I was testing Resent, seeing if I could use him for what’s coming. Your house was just collateral damage. It doesn’t matter either way. Houses will be the least of anyone’s concerns by January 1st.”

“And what happens then?” Jett asked.

“Hell invades earth.”

“What!” Resent yelled so loud Rodrigo’s head ached.

“Calm down. I’m sure she’ll explain,” Rodrigo said. “A little more detail would be nice.”

“I have a contact from Hell who keeps me posted. Basically, to ring in the new year, legions of demons are going to make their way here and demolish everything in their path, under the orders of King Misery.”

“Misery, the King of Hell? What nonsense is this?”

“Contact from Hell?” Rodrigo asked, taken aback by how mundane she made it sound. “Well...did your contact explain why Misery’s doing this?”

Adena scoffed. “Does a child need an elaborate reason to burn ants with a magnifying glass? No. He sees something incapable of defending itself he can assert his dominance over. And that’s the mentality demons have toward us. All that’s known is it’s happening, and he has no interest in our surrender.”

“And what do you plan to do about that?” Jett asked.

“The idea is to survive, which will be easier if our kind sticks together.” As Jett opened his mouth to argue, Adena added, “Did you delude yourself into believing it was serendipity that you got off scot-free for electrocuting people? I cleaned up your mess because I have a use for you as well.”

Jett’s throat bobbed. In a tight voice, he asked, “A-are they...dead?”

For the first time, Adena hesitated. “No. You temporarily paralyzed them and gave them minor electrical burns. But you won’t have to worry about them reporting you...so long as you cooperate.” Then to Rodrigo, she said, “We’ll meet again soon, but for now, I have to go.”

She turned and walked away, without giving any of them a second glance.

When she was gone, Raquel asked, “Okay, so, guys, she belongs in a nuthouse, right?”

“I don’t know. Resent knows a demon called Misery, so that much at least—”

“Uh, bro,” Carlito said, glancing around anxiously. “Can we take off before that thing comes back to finish the job now that the pyromaniac’s gone?”

At the mention of the creature, Rodrigo noticed his hands were still shaking. He’d never frozen like he had at the sight of it. And if that thing did return, injured and furious, he didn’t see it leaving until they were all dead.

“Come on,” Rodrigo said, running at a pace Raquel and Carlito could keep up with. They didn’t stop until they were outside Jett’s house.

“I think we might need an ambulance,” Carlito said with wide, watery eyes.

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“Why? Is anyone hurt?” Rodrigo asked, giving them all a once-over.

“You,” Carlito responded, pointing at him with a trembling finger.

Rodrigo examined himself in the porch light. With the amount of blood he lost, anyone else would have died. Resent’s regeneration had closed the wounds before they became life-threatening, likely creating new blood cells, and even took away the pain, but blood still soaked his clothes. “I know it doesn’t make sense, but I’m fine. Thanks to Resent, the wounds are completely healed. We can’t let Mom or Emelina know about any of this.”

“Why not? We need the marines, or the FBI, or something!”

“You’re being too loud,” Raquel said in a low, irritated tone.

“How do we even hide this?” Jett asked. “Ruy’s clothes are wrecked and Carlito...had an accident.”

Carlito looked down at the dark wet spot that had spread on his jeans, his face reddening. “Liar! I didn’t pee myself! This was something else!”

Raquel smacked him upside the head, their short-lived coalition broken. “Shut up, you baby! If anyone sees us now, they’ll call the police, and this turns into an even bigger disaster.”

“Exactly,” Jett said. “I dunno how much you two saw in that house, but plenty of people have probably called the cops by now, so they might be extra motivated. They show up, maybe figure out what Ruy and me can do, and we end up on lab tables in some black site.”

“Yeah. Besides, that thing is long gone,” Rodrigo said, trying to reassure himself as much as them. He didn’t like seeing his sister mimic their mother’s abusive tendencies, and though understandably, his brother was bordering on hysterical. “Okay. Jett, you and Raquel go in first, and distract Emelina somehow. While you’re doing that, me and Carlito run for the stairs. Then we change our clothes.”

“Sus, but better than nothing. Take whatever you need from the dresser,” Jett said. “All right, nobody says another word about what happened until we get into the room, okay?”

They waited outside in contemplative silence for a few minutes, composing themselves the best they could. Fortunately, when they entered, Emelina was watching a novela, and was so captivated by it she greeted them without turning away from the screen. Miriam was still nowhere in sight.

“Bathroom,” Rodrigo blurted as he hurried to the stairs.

“Same,” Carlito said, following behind him.

In the bedroom, Rodrigo went to dig through the six-drawer dresser Jett and Geo shared. He took out a purple long-sleeved shirt, black running pants, and an empty drawstring bag. Stretching a pair of Geo’s underwear and sweats out to Carlito, he said, “You go first.”

Staring out the window with a faraway look in his eyes, Carlito didn’t seem to hear him.

“Bro,” Rodrigo said softly, nudging him with the clothes.

“Oh, s-sorry.” His brother took a deep breath. “I’ll knock when I’m done.”

Once Carlito left, Rodrigo removed the ruined jacket, shirt, and pants, putting them in the bag. Other than a few specks of blood, the scarf made it out unscathed. When he heard the three knocks, he waited a few seconds before heading to the bathroom.

Looking at himself in the mirror, he decided to take a brief shower. After the water that swirled down the drain was no longer streaked with red, Rodrigo got out, drying himself off. Other than the pants needing to be rolled up, the clothes were a good fit.

When Rodrigo reentered the bedroom, they were all there, edging toward the breakdowns adrenaline had delayed. Carlito was the worst off, lying down and crying quietly, while Jett patted him on the back.

Raquel was pacing the room. “What the hell happened in that house? What was that thing? How do you guys have powers? And did that Athena bitch really burn our house down? Can we sue her?”

“Adena,” Jett corrected.

“That’s what I said,” Raquel snapped.

“I think you better tell us everything, bro,” Carlito said through hiccups. He was sitting up now, the blanket drawn around him like a cloak.

If anything Rodrigo could say would help, then he’d gladly fill them in. “All right, this is going to take a bit, but don’t say anything until the end.”

When everyone nodded, he began. The only thing he held back was Resent’s dreams. Rodrigo didn’t even know if Resent was aware he was seeing his memories. There was an awkward silence as everyone tried to take all that in.

“With what we saw, maybe I can buy demons, but I still don’t buy this whole prince thing,” Raquel said, crossing her arms. “You could’ve just been deepening your voice and using fancy words. Show me him.”

Resent took over, nebulae billowing from the index finger he held a few inches below her chin and tipping her head back to give her a good look at him. “Here I am, girl. If it’s proof of my lineage you desire, the nebulae speaks for itself. Summon me like some serf again at your own peril.” His point made, he ceded control back to Rodrigo.

Raquel backpedaled, her eyes wide from seeing the stranger that was just in front of her. Then as she shook her head, in almost a whisper, she said, “I...I can’t believe it. This is insane.”

“And then there’s the demons invading on New Year’s Day to worry about,” Carlito said.

“If she’s right, it’s nice to have a heads-up, but I dunno what she expects from us,” Jett said. “The military’s always itching to test out new weapons. They can handle it.”

“Can they?” Rodrigo asked. “I mean, if just one demon’s been causing all this mayhem, imagine when they come in hordes. Worse comes to worst, we might need to chip in.” As Carlito’s mouth opened to form a perfect O, he continued, “Not you two. Me and Jett.”

“Chip in?” Jett echoed in disbelief, rising off the bed. “Yeah, no. I don’t care what she tries to blackmail me with. If you and your sketchy albino girlfriend wanna throw on costumes, and assemble the Avengers, have fun. You can leave me the hell outta it. I swear, it’s like you missed the part where we were nearly torn to pieces by t-that thing.”

“Hard to forget, since I was the one bleeding,” Rodrigo said, not intending for it to sound so accusatory. “I’m sorry you guys had to go through that. It was a rough introduction to all this, but the best thing we can do is move past it.”

“Now, I remember why I stopped hanging out with you so much. That creepy way of yours of shrugging off just about everything that happens to you. I’m not convinced you’d be shook even without the magical healing and a demon explaining this crap. Wanna know why the rest of us can’t move past it? Because, unlike you, we were terrified of getting killed out there!”

Rodrigo’s temper flared, and for a second, he almost exploded. But he bit his inner cheek until he tasted blood and kept his cool. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to see what happens.”

“Forget it,” Raquel said, clearly not wanting the friction between Rodrigo and Jett to grow further. “I don’t want to think about any of this anymore.”

“What else matters right now?” Jett asked.

“Nothing, but that thing’s eyes are gonna give me nightmares tonight. Maybe for life.” Raquel turned the PS5 back on and grabbed a controller. “Let’s get back to the game. At least we can kill things like that there.”

As Raquel stretched out a controller to him, Jett’s expression hardened as if he was about to slap it out of her hand or yell. Instead, he sighed and stormed out of the room. Rodrigo couldn’t fault him for being angry. Jett was frightened, confused, and looking for someone to blame. The infuriating thing was how in his cousin's mind, that person was Rodrigo. As if he had suggested they go to that house. As if he hadn’t held the line and stopped anyone else from being hurt. As if life was so meaningless to him, he hadn’t been afraid to die.