The sunlight feels warm going through his little window. The boy's blue eyes stare through the glass, looking at the neighborhood kids kicking a blue and red ball between them. The smiles one their faces shine brightly. Their eyes are filled with joy.

The boy gains a smile on his face as he leaves his bedroom. He runs down the stares on his large home. He barely stops himself from hitting his head on the front door.

As he looks up at the door, this new hope fills him. He holds one hand to his chest while the other goes to the doorknob. He is just about to open the door.

"Alex!" A shrieking voice comes from behind him as he jumps in response. He slowly turns his head to see the glaring eyes and the angry face of his mother.

Alex pouts as he pulls his hand away from the doorknob. He walks towards her with his head down. It seems Alex wasn't able to get past her yet again.

———

Eleven years later...

The van holding the group of five enters the driveway to the normal sized house. Ethan is the first to exit, practically jumping out of the van and running towards the red front door. The others soon get out as well. As they walk towards the front door, Alex comes to a realization.

"Wait, what about your families? Why are you guys not worried about them? Shou-Shouldn't you guys be concerned at least?"

Mason laughs loudly. "Hahaha! Kid, I'm fuckin' homeless! Ya think I would be if I had the support of one?! And even if I did, they'd be back in Buffalo, not fucks nowhere, Illinois!" Mason let's out a few more laughs.

"Nowhere? We're right next to Chicago..." Alex mumbles out, confused. Mason ignores him as he continues towards the door.

"My parents are currently on vacation in Mexico, so I'm not particularly worried at the moment." Grace says as she fumbles with the keys. Ethan turns to Alex.

"Well, my current owners have a bit of a hoarding problem. The things they happen to be hoarding are a fuck ton of guns, so they should be fine." Ethan turns back and leans on the wall, waiting for Grace to unlock the door.

Ava looks over at Alex. "They're fine."

Alex shakes his head. "Wa-"

"They're. Fine." Ava says again, this time more slowly and with more venom in her voice. Alex shuts his mouth quickly.

"Got it! Finally." Grace says as she unlocks the door. Ethan all but pushes her away as he pushes the door open. He rushes inside. Grace soon follows. The other three walk inside soon after.

The house itself looks as plain on the inside as it did the outside. The walls are colored a normal brightish blue. The furniture is mostly brown and up against the walls. A few small tables here and there. The tv is on one of the walls. Overall, it's what you would normally expect from any house.

Ethan turns to Grace. "All right, I don't want to look around all day. Where's the demon killing shit?"

Grace narrows her eyes at the teenager. "First of all, they're not demons, they are mythical creatures." Ethan rolls his eyes as Grace pulls out a hammer from her purse. Alex backs away slightly.

"Second of all." She slams the hammer down onto the floor several times, creating a large hole in the floor. Grace then drops the hammer as her arms go through the hole. After a few seconds, she pulls out three duffel bags. Grace walks over and puts them on a nearby glass table. "Here, take what you want."
She says as she opens one up to dig through it. She pulls out two handguns and a knife. "Try not to be wasteful with my gifts to you."

A large smile gets plastered onto Ethan's face. He runs towards the duffel bags. After digging through them for a few seconds, he pulls out a shotgun and a large bag of ammo. "Now this is more like it!"

Mason and Ava dig through them next. Mason pulls out a shotgun and a machete while Ava grabs two knifes and a couple of handguns. Mason smiles brightly. "Let's send these mythical bastards back to whatever hell they came from!" Ava nods in agreement.

Alex looks nervously at the bags full of guns and blades. A new kind of panic rises through him, slowly but steadily. His hands feel sweaty as he starts shaking.

He feels a something grab onto his shoulder. He quickly turns around to see Ethan looking at him with a determined look. "Listen Alex, this is for your mother. She's in that university and could be in serious danger. You cannot freak out now. So pull yourself the fuck together!" Ethan shoved his baseball bat towards Alex, seemingly giving it to him. Alex slowly grabs on to the bat, looking up at Ethan nervously.

Ethan goes back to the duffel bags a pulls out a machete and two handguns. He gives them to Alex, with Alex grabbing them, being too nervous to do anything else. "God gave us these tool. He gave us these weapons, these gifts, to use however we pleased. He gave these to us, expecting us to use them. Do you really expect him to come in now to rush in and save your mother for you at the last minute? No! That's up to you and you alone! Now, are you coming or not!?" Ethan leaves the house and heads back to the van, not waiting to hears Alex's reply.

The others soon leave the house, with Alex following in the back, looking down at the weapons handed to him. They soon enter the van once again. Graces quickly puts it into reverse.

———

As they pull the parking lot, they already see that the chaos as already reached the university. Creatures all over, attacking and chasing anyone they can see. People running away or driving like madmen. Is they drive closer to the building, they hear, coming from inside, screams of pain and fear along with the monstrous roars, signaling the creatures's joy and triumph.

As the sounds ring through the air, Alex can feel his heart racing, his vision starts to turn blurry. He practical jumps out of the car as he rushes towards the doors.

He hears the yelling of the four from the van, but he ignores them. His mind has become glued to one thing and one thing only. His heart beat seems to be getting faster and faster. He busts open the door and stops dead in his tracks.

In front of him is a large, blood covered beast that's twice his size. It's legs are that of a fit human. His upper body is the unholy combination of man and beast, with hand hands and thick, dark fur. His bull head looks down at him with hungry golden eyes.

A shot rings through the air as blood sputters from the beasts chest. The thing's eyes go wide as it roars out in pain but, to Alex at least, rage. Before the beast could do anything though, another shot rings out, hit the beast right in the head. A few seconds later, he falls down to the ground unmoving.

Ava walks up to him, her gun out and about. She looks at him with a cold expression. "What the hell was that?" Alex hears her say beside him.

Ethan walks up to him next. "Gotta agree with the goth chick man. Did your brain turn off there or what!?"

Alex looks around at both of them, his eyes wide. "We don't have time for this! My mom! She needs me! She should be on this first floor a few doors down, in the lecture hall!"

"First floor lecture hall." Grace mutters out. She looks down at the shorter boy. "Your mom is Elizabeth Allard, isn't she?" Grace asks. Alex quick nods, looking at her with stressed out eyes and a shaky breath. "Knew it. Well then, let's go." Grace rushes into the building, with Alex following close by. The others soon follow as well.

A minute later, with luckily no other run ins with the monsters, they make it to the large black double doors. Grace all but tears the door open.

As they enter, they see the lecture hall deserted. Books have been thrown around. Some cracks on the walls and seats here or there. But over all, nothing.

"She's not here." Grace says. Ethan let's put a chuckle. "Thanks captain obvious."

"Where is she? Where?" Alex all but begs. To who, he's not sure. Grace looks up above them.

"Well, either she made it out."

"She would have called me." Alex spats out.

"Or she's where all the roaring is. On one of the two upper floors."

They all look up at the ceiling as they hear more yelling and screaming. Alex hugs himself a bit, trying to calm himself down. Ethan puts a hand on his shoulder.

Grace walks up to Alex. "You two boys are with me. Mason, take the girl and search through the second floor. We'll search through the third floor."

Mason nods  as he smiles at Grace. "Don't ya worry Grace! We'll search through this place like a FBI man!" He runs out of the room, with Ava following close behind.

Grace looks down at the two teens. She gets a glint of excitement in her eyes as she gives the teens a sinister smile. "I hope you two are ready. Put on your brave faces, cause one of , if not both you very well could die. We don't want to give these things the satisfaction of seeing our terrified face as they eat us alive, now do we?"

Alex and Ethan look at each other with already present nervousness and newfound fear in their eyes.

———
It has been half an hour.

But, to Alex at least, it feels like it's been several hours, mentally speaking.

Him, Ethan, and Grace have been going through the third floor, checking every room that they can find. They've been shooting and stabbing monsters that they could hurt and kill, and running away from others that seemed like walking death wishes. Mainly, the Chimeras.

At least, Ethan and Grace have been shooting and stabbing the monsters.

Each time he has the opportunity to shoot a monster or hit it with the bat, he freezes. His body refuses to move. His mind goes back to that harpy and all her blood.

Ethan keeps on looking at with while Grace has been ignoring him. They move through quietly, trying to avoid being detected. They walk some more until they see another double door.

They walking closer to it, hearing a few hushed voices from the other side. Alex instantly recognizes one of them. He rushes to the door.

"M-Mom?"

"Alex?" He hears his mothers voice. Alex shutters out a joy filled whimper.

"Me and s-some friends came here to save you. We came to get you out of here."

"Ok sweetie, there's some other people here with me. We blocked the doors with some furniture, so, just, give us a minute here." She says as Alex hears things being moved around from inside the room.

A large roar rings out. The roar sounds unholy. Like the combination of several different animals being tortured.

"Chimeras." Grace says as she backs up slightly next to Alex. "They're coming." Ethan starts banging on the door. "Hurry the fuck up!"

"W-We're trying!" Alex's mother yells out. The roars get a louder as they hear something walking towards them.

"There!" The doors fly open. Alex sees his mother smiling down at him, with serval people behind her.

"Mom!" Alex feels his eyes water in joy.

Vines burst through the walls and floors. They all feel themselves levitate. A bright light fills the room.

———

"Mmmm-Mom." Alex opens his eyes as he sits up he runs his eyes as his vision comes back to him. He hopes that what happened, what he saw, what he did, was all just a horrible nightmare.

Those hopes are soon thrown away as he looks around. He's in the middle of the street, in a city he doesn't recognize. Everything is covered in vines and trees, from the streetlights all the way up to the tallest skyscraper. He sees several things flying far above him, mostly harpies. He looks around to see, in the far distance, more monsters walking around.

This is the day life changed forever for Alex. This day was the day he started to change. This was the day that this became his new normal.