After dinner, we were brought back home, and there Lucia was confronted by the parents of kids; they were all clearly angry about something but held themself back in order not to look bad in front of us.

"Go back inside; we'll talk about this later." Elena's father said to us; he was also extremely agitated; I could see the hand gripping on his support cane trembling.

He was gritting his teeth; the veins in his neck seemed about to burst because of how angry he was; the veins in his eyes were also visible. He gave the aura of a monster barely able to keep his human disguise. It was disturbingly horrifying.

I initially hesitated to follow his order. I feared that our absence could stop the adults from holding back against those two, as all of them seemed extremely pissed at them; Elena, on the other hand, didn't. She grabbed my hand and silently carried me back inside the house.

Her hand is also trembling…

I wanted to be courageous for once, but seeing the pack of angry parents made me rethink my choices; that was something I didn't want to deal with.

When we got back inside, we immediately rushed towards Elena's room; her window was directly facing the front of the house, allowing us to peek at what was going on.

All the kids were walking back to their respective houses; Lucia and her boyfriend, on the other hand, remained there to be scolded by the parents.

"Do you even know how worried we were? Why didn't you answer any of our calls?" One of the parents shouted.

"Who is the man that is accompanying you? Do you know? We've received distressed calls for someone using demonic powers right in front of our kids!" Another parent joined in. They were all extremely angered by the situation.

I hope everything can be resolved peacefully.

"Sir, we didn't mean to—" The boyfriend tried to apologize, but he wasn't given time to; all the other parents complained about all sorts of things; some were related to me, some weren't, but the common theme was that they received a formal complaint from the old lady.

Some of them complained they had to leave work early to deal with this, and when they did, Lucia was nowhere to be seen. Not only that, but she refused to answer their calls.

I felt a little bad for her as half of the problems were caused by me.

At the very least, they didn't seem to notice the bright colors their children had.

They eventually touched on the topic of the children, asking why they were colored and such, and when she looked up to our window, I instinctively hid beneath it.

Damn, I really shouldn't have done that.

I feared being confronted by a mob of extremely angry parents, but they didn't; after the babysitter explained that it was part of a harmless ability, they still complained against her for quite a while.

"Wow, they really didn't like it. I think it was a pretty nice experience. What do you think?" Elena asked me while watching all of this unfold.

I don't know! How should I answer here?

I simply remained silent.

"Oh, the others have finally stopped complaining." She then picked me up by the armpits and lifted my body so I could watch what was happening outside.

Stop! I don't want to watch that thing; let go of me!

All the other parents were leaving, all of them equally pissed; Lucia and her boyfriend, on the other hand, remained standing in front of Elena's father. She was fidgeting around with her hands, avoiding his gaze while the boyfriend was bowing down.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"What do you think they're talking about?" She asked me.

Again, I'm not a—why do you ask me? I know nothing of this place; I should be the one asking you what is going on! Especially since everyone seems to be changing moods at lightning speed!

"Why are you silent? What are you thinking? Luke?" She asked me, for some odd reason—she was whispering now—and hearing her whisper right into my right ear gave me chills.

To get my attention, Elena started pinching my cheeks. It was done lightly, not strong enough to hurt me, but definitely strong enough to annoy me. As I turned around to face her, I saw her giggling to herself.

"No, I'm fine." I answered.

Suddenly, Elena's father stomped his feet into the ground, cracking the concrete floor. He raised his fist ready to punch the girl but then refused to do so. The only thing I was able to hear was him screaming, "If I see you again, I don't know what I'm going to do with you. Get out! I don't want to see you again!"

It was strange; I didn't imagine that even with his legs crippled, he still held that much power in his body.

"Ah, that's not good…" Elena said as she put me back down. She looked worried, which also made me anxious; my first thought was, "Crap! I'm going to get beat up for this, aren't I?"

"What do we do?" I asked her.

She began thinking but never actually answered; she remained lost in her small bubble until it popped at the sound of the front door of the house being slammed.

"Elena! Can you come here for a moment?" He shouted from downstairs.

Oh no, I can recognize this tone from a mile away; we're screwed. No wait, she is! I'm just a guest here; I doubt he would get angry at me after all I did to anger him.

"I'm coming!" She shouted back. "Don't worry, my dad never got too angry with me; I doubt he's going to punish me." She then said with a confident smile, her pink hair seemed to shine brighter than ever whenever she was smiling.

"N-no, I trust you; you can go ahead." I replied.

I knew from experience that when a father shouts like that, you won't get away with at least a slap across the face; depending on the answer, you might get the belt in the worst cases.

I should probably warn her, but she sounded so confident a few minutes ago… Maybe I'm just exaggerating; maybe it's not all that bad… I hope so.

"So, can you tell me what happened?" Her father asked her as soon as she got downstairs. His hand was trembling, and he didn't seem like he could support himself well, so he walked towards the kitchen and then threw away his cane.

"Erhm, I… w-we went to the park."

"Don't lie to me! You smell like booze; where did that girl bring you?" He asked, raising his voice.

Maybe I should go there, just in case; it wouldn't be fair for her to take all of the blame; I was at fault as well after all.

I sneaked out of the room and silently climbed down the stairs.

"Where did you go? I already received the call from that decrepit hag, so I know that you played with the Scarlet Devil's son's ability! She was on the verge of filing a formal complaint against us and reporting the illegal weapon!" He shouted.

Seeing that scary man that angry was terrifying; the scar on the right side of his face made him look like a demon.

"I'm sorry." She quickly apologized.

As she lowered her head to avoid his gaze, she seemed much smaller, while her father seemed to be steadily growing bigger and bigger. He had such an imposing aura it made it hard to breathe.

"What was on your mind back then?" He asked her. He was still angry but was trying to calm himself to not scare her away.

"I… I was a bit excited because his ability can give colors back. S-Sorry," she apologized; her voice was barely audible.

"I heard so!"

The man then took a moment of silence to calm down his nerves.He covered his face with both hands and massaged his forehead to get rid of his wrinkles.

"I also heard that Luke has problems eating now; can you tell me what happened?" He asked her.

She told him everything: how after playing dodgeball I fainted, how they brought me to a pediatrician that was located nearby instead of going to the hospital, and how the lady asked them to keep what happened a secret.

Apparently, a proper diagnosis couldn't be done because there was some residual demonic energy attached to my body, most likely caused by the emergency treatment given to me by Elena's father.

Then she even told him about the small party at the sports center.

"Is that truly all?" Her father asked her once more.

Elena nodded as she was almost on the verge of tears; that interrogation was taking a bigger toll on her than I imagined.

Her usual cheerful persona had disappeared, and she had become a sobbing mess.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so harsh; come here." After a small, touching hug, he tried to get up.

Without his cane, it seemed hard for him to walk.

How was he able to destroy the concrete with legs that can barely hold his weight?

I was peeking from the entrance of the kitchen, trying to remain partially hidden. I just wanted to be sure nothing bad was going to happen to Elena, and then suddenly a bunch of cars were flung in my direction.

Most of them got stuck in the door frame, but one of those cards managed to leave a scratch on my right cheek.

Blood? What is going on? Why did you attack me?

I thought as I touched the injury and examined my hand to see how much blood I lost.