Dear… opening the door, I froze in horror.
My dad, the man who had stood strong all my life, was being torn apart by a grotesque creature.
It sent a chill so deep through me that I almost couldn't breathe.
The monster loomed unnaturally tall, its limbs stretched nearly as long as its whole body. Sickly blue skin clung tight to its bones, and its white eyes glowed as they locked onto my father. Its head looked like a beaten, battered ball, and its mouth was crammed with rows of slick teeth. Long black strands of hair clung to its half-bald scalp, dangling loose like something rotten.
Its fingers dripped with my father's blood. Flesh was missing from his body as he crawled backward, leaving streaks of red on the floor.
My dad had always been outstanding. Brown hair, gray eyes, a strong posture that made him seem unshakable.
Seeing him reduced to this fragile, desperate state made bile rise in my throat. I clutched my stomach, collapsing to the floor as the stench of smoke and fire pressed into my lungs.
The sound of me retching drew the creature's attention. Its head snapped toward me in one jagged motion.
Fear froze me.
My father's broken form was forgotten by the monster as it began its slow, dreadful walk toward me.
The house groaned around us. Flames climbed the walls and beams collapsed, sending wood crashing to the floor.
My dad's expression hardened as he realized what was about to happen to me. His son. His child.
Adrenaline flared through him. He staggered up, snatched a broken chair from the rubble, and with fire in his eyes, he roared.
"Get away from him!"
Tears streaked his face as he swung the chair with every ounce of strength left in his body.
BASH!
The chair splintered on the demon's body.
The creature didn't even flinch.
My father froze, eyes wide with despair.
The monster's shriek ripped through the burning house, so sharp it rattled my bones. In a blur, its claws ripped through his chest.
"AHHHH!"
My father's scream filled the room. I wanted to run, but my ten-year-old body wouldn't move.
My legs trembled uselessly, locking me in place. I could only watch. I could only watch as the monster's claws dug deeper, tearing into him.
Then, with a sickening crack, it gripped his head.
I heard the snap.
The tearing. Blood poured as the monster ripped my father's head clean from his body.
It tossed the head aside. Like garbage. Like a toy it had grown bored of.
The man who raised me, who loved me, who protected me, was nothing but waste in its hands.
Something inside me broke. Rage surged through me, hotter than the fire choking the room.
I stood. My legs finally moved. I didn't care how weak I was. I had to fight.
I charged at the creature, fists clenched so tight my nails dug into my skin.
"AHHHHHH!"
My childish scream echoed through the flames as I struck the back of its leg.
THUD!
The hit was nothing. My strongest punch, fueled by grief and fury, didn't even leave a scratch.
Reality sank in like ice. I wasn't strong. I wasn't some chosen protagonist. I had no powers, no destiny.
I was just Human.
The creature turned, its cold eyes locking onto me. Its claw rose to strike, ready to end me.
And then—
"By the name of Oeus, I COMMAND you to fall!"
The booming voice shook the house. The creature twisted its head toward the sound, but before it could react its body slammed to the ground as if crushed by an invisible mountain.
I stared in shock, trembling.
A soft, warm voice came from behind me.
A woman's voice.
"You'll be okay!"
Light wrapped around me, a golden, translucent barrier sealing me in safety.
The smoke no longer burned my lungs, the fire no longer scorched my skin. It was like breathing peace itself.
Through the barrier, I watched a figure step calmly through the flames.
A man in spotless white robes edged with gold, untouched by the fire. His high collar framed his stern face, his gray hair flowing, his wrinkles shallow but his presence ancient. A golden chain rested across his chest in the shape of a mountain. He looked like a priest, but more commanding than any priest I had ever seen.
His eyes burned with righteous fury as he faced the demon.
From his robes, he drew a vial that shimmered faintly green.
"Fall to the hand of Oeus!"
He shattered the vial, flinging the liquid across the demon's body.
The monster shrieked in agony as smoke rose from its skin, the liquid eating away at it like acid.
The old man clasped his hands together in prayer.
"Oeus, take this creature into your hands."
The weight pressing on the monster grew heavier, crushing it deeper into the floor until its body flattened. Blood sprayed across the burning walls as its screeches died into silence.
Then the man turned his eyes to me.
"You are safe now, child," he said softly. "As long as you are in my care, you will live."
Darkness swallowed me, and I collapsed.