• Phell sat outside on the front step watching the rain hit the ground, forming a small “lake” around the smoking fire in the center of the village. Phell’s red, demon eyes were like the pond; streaming and filled with the transparent tears of an eight-year-old boy.
    “Why won’t you let me in Father?” Phell cried up into the heavens.
    “You are a demon. Do the rules of our village mean nothing to you?” Oddarc’s voice bellowed from behind the large oaken door.
    The thunder that came next shook the mountains to the east and left the shape-shifter boy terrified. Lightning illuminated his pale face and thin frame. Phell pulled his legs up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them, trying to keep warm against the cold, wet rain that the wind threw at him.
    “Father, you know that thunder scares me…don’t you love me, as a father would a son?”
    “You are a creature of darkness, though you take the form of a boy. Your sister is more human than you!”
    The boy’s eyes welled up with tears, overflowing as he tried to remember the days before his parents became divorced. Aniya was his older, twin sister; a being of light. She was light and he was dark; an angel to counter the demon.
    Thunder cackled off in the distance and the boy jumped, shaking from head to toe.
    Maybe I don’t have to go in. Maybe he just has to come out. The boy looked down at his left hand and at the glove that covered the symbol of darkness. Better yet…. Phell grasped the yin-yang necklace dangling from a strip of leather about his neck. The demon yanked it off and felt his body change. This was different from his normal transformations however. His hands and feet pulsed. The boy looked down to find large claws in the place of his hands and feet. Black leathery wings sprouted form his back that encompassed him in a dark cocoon. His body scaled over and grew to an outrageous size. Phell now looked like a dragon that was controlled by Death himself. The demon’s eyes wandered across the village before coming to rest and glare at Oddarc’s front door.
    Green fire erupted from his jaws, burning through the door and nearly catching the man’s arm. Other villagers cautiously opened their doors at the crackling of the flames. Many of them grabbed their guns while the wives took hold of the wide-eyed children and pulled them back inside. The men began to shoot at the demon’s large form, only to watch their bullets ricochet off of the ebony black scales and clatter on the ground. The few courageous ones drew their swords, climbed up the dragon’s tail, and began to swing at Phell’s armored skin. Phell’s tail swung upwards, knocking the men off of his back, and watching them fly into the roofs of other houses. He let out a ferocious roar that sent the rest of the villagers scurrying back home.
    Oddarc was the only one left. The man’s sword hung at his side, lightly touching the cobblestone road. The demon turned away from the remains of Oddarc’s house and the other villagers to look at his father. Green flames awoke in Phell’s throat once more as he sent them lancing at his father. Oddarc side-stepped the fire, keeping constant eye contact with the black dragon. The man started to slowly walk over to his morphed son, dodging fire balls all the while. Oddarc reached the dragon, aiming his sword at the creature’s soft underbelly. He thrust the sword at the demon’s chest, black sparks running along the length of the blade. The sparks became more prominent as Phell’s father, pushed it deeper into the dragons’ breast bone. Phell roared in pain, spitting fire one last time as his body began to revert back to human form. The elder man had not expected the monster to still be able to harm him, thus the flames engulfed his terrified features. The large man pivoted away from Phell and dropped to the ground to try and put out the flames. The dragon had collapsed and as a cloud of black dust cleared away, Phell’s worn out form became visible. The boy’s red eyes stared blankly at the man now lying still in the street. Clutching his chest with his right hand, the boy rose and stumbled over to his father. Satisfied with his work, Phell staggered out of the village and into the night.