On a chilly summer night, there were bright, white lights coming from a large white duplex family home. A tall man who looked to be in his early twenties walked on the rough walkway to the house, rolling a carry-on suitcase. Stopping at one of the front doors, he smiled.  The door listed: 'The Hernandez-Santiago family'. He pressed the doorbell with one of his shaking fingers, straightening his blue and white polo shirt while waiting for an answer. A brown-haired, bushy woman with tanned skin opened the door when she saw the visiting man appearing right in front of her She smiled widely and embraced the man, welcoming him in her home.

"Oh, my little boy came home! I miss you so much!" she exclaimed.  The woman directed the man inside the house.

The visiting man entered the house and cleared his throat after hugging his mother. Inside of the house,   The man went into the dining room where he saw a man older than him sat in the chair at the far end of the dining table. A young boy who had the same auburn hair and dark brown eyes also was sitting next to the older man. The man took a seat in one chair next to the young boy which is his little brother.

"Where's Leticia, mom?" the visiting man asked the woman, then he looked at his younger brother, " Hey, Miguel."

"I told your sister to come home on time! It's a very important time for us!" the bushy-haired woman exclaimed, sitting in another chair near the visiting man.

The visiting man sighed until he saw the door swung swiftly to reveal a young woman carrying a guitar case near the living room. She placed her guitar down with a loud thump before rushing into the dining room. The young woman stood there frozen for a second like a deer in headlights. His mother huffed in frustration while the young woman sat down next to the visiting man. The young woman looked younger than the visiting man himself. She looked at him and beamed, fixes up her beige leather short-sleeved jacket.

"Yo, Raphael. Sorry, I'm late," The young woman apologized to the visiting man.

"You could've been earlier, Leticia.," Mrs. Hernandez criticized.

"My band practice held me up. Sorry." Leticia muttered, sliding down into her chair in embarrassment.

The visiting man named Raphael sighed. This is normal for his sister, Leticia, and his mother get a little heated. As he sat near his mother, he petted his sister's arm to not allow her to feel embarrassed.

"I'm sure Leticia didn't mean it, mom. Plus, her band has been working a lot." Raphael explained, "Can you give her a rest? What matters is that everyone is here now."

Mrs. Hernandez just looked at her son and then at her daughter. She took a deep breath to relax, calming herself down.

"Alright, for you. I will let this one thing slide." Mrs. Hernandez said.

The table went quiet for a moment. Their mother got up from the table to get the last dinner dish from the kitchen. She returned to the dining room and set the dish on the table. Laugher filled the dining room with the aroma of Hispanic food flooded Raphael's senses. As the night went on, almost everyone except Raphael had spoken about their latest life updates.

The family then turned their attention to Raphael, especially his mother and his father. Their father took a sip of his whiskey and put down his cup on the table.

"So my big engineer boy, how's your semester been?" The older man, Mr. Hernandez, boomed throughout the room.

"Um..." Raphael glanced around the room and sweat. His family members glared at him, waiting for him to speak.

"When are you going to introduce that lovely girl, Victoria, that you have been raving about?" Mrs. Hernandez interrupted.

He took a deep breath to calm the nerves. Even his younger siblings jumped in with questions about his college life. He opened his mouth and answered the family in five words: "I dropped out of college."

The reactions ranged from the look of horror on his parents' faces to his younger siblings dropping their mouths and their food utensils onto their plates.

"Raphael, please tell me you're joking, honey." His mother laughed.

"I'm not joking. I'm done with college and I just dropped out mid-semester." Raphael said, bluntly.

Mrs. Hernandez exploded, " Your father and I did not work overtime to help pay you to go to college just to drop out! I want to know why you left college?! This is behavior I expected from your sister."

Raphael watched Leticia twitched at the mention of her name. Leticia leaned forward at the dinner table and spat back at his mother, "I'm not the one who dropped out of college here, ma! I didn't come home just for you to do your annoying comparisons!"

"Enough!" Raphael shouted. The entire family stopped talking, and he continued to speak, "I dropped out because I found enlightenment and learned about myself. I also gained new friends, which helped me prompt my decision to leave college."

"Enlightenment?! What friends told you to dropout of college?" Mrs. Hernandez exclaimed.

"I'm sure you remember who the group is, mother..." Raphael stopped speaking when he saw Mrs. Hernandez gasped in shock and Mr. Hernandez dropped his glass liquor cup on the table. The cup broke into pieces.

Raphael observed his sister, Leticia, and his little brother, Miguel, went to his parents to comfort them. Leticia rubbed Mrs. Hernandez's back and looked up at Raphael in a pissed face. Miguel tried to clean up the broken glass pieces on the table near Mr. Hernandez.

"Raphael, you stay away from those people... They are bad." Mrs. Hernandez's voice staggered.

"These people are my friends, mom! You abandoned the cause and tainted us with this wasteful a life being an Outsider! You're disgusting!" Raphael's face turned into anger, then he pointed at Mr. Hernandez.

"Raph, what in the hell are you talking about?!" Leticia shouted at Raphael.

"Leticia, mom lied to us about everything about who we are! Leticia, Miguel, we're not normal people... We are superior to everyone in this damn city and world! I need to save you both from the hell we're living in!" Raphael ranted. He walked towards to Leticia like a zombie, extending out his hand to his sister. "If you come with me, I'll show you the path of freedom and enlightenment."

Just before Raphael could reach out to Leticia, Raphael suddenly holds his head and screamed in pain. He fell to the ground, feeling an agonizing pain in his head. Raphael looked up to his mother, who holds her hand out in the air at Raphael. It is clear to Raphael that Mrs. Hernandez is doing something to him. His mother gradually went closer to Raphael. She showed disproving face at him. Raphael's headache pain increased every step that his mother took until she ended up at his spot. Raphael struggled to get up from the floor. Mrs. Hernandez continued to increase the pain with her unexplained ability that she had.

Mrs. Hernandez spoke in a stern voice to her son, "I did not want to do this to you, Raphael. I want you to leave this house now and never come back here again."

Raphael and Mrs. Hernandez stood there in silence until Raphael could get up and glared at his mother.

Raphael picked himself up and rubbed his forehead again to relieve the pain. He didn't want to wait to see if his mother was going to do anything else, so he grabbed his suitcase from the hallway. But Raphael will not leave without having the last say.

"You finally used your powers after years of being a coward and a traitor. You win this time, but you cannot keep this secret from us for long." Raphael warned his family.

With that, Raphael exited to the front door, Leticia and Miguel were in shock about the events that happened now. Mrs. Hernandez said nothing else while Raphael left the house.

Leticia walked up to her mother with a confused face, "What secret did he mean, mom?"

Mrs. Hernandez looked at her daughter and didn't say a word to her at all.

Leticia ran out of the house to go after her older brother, frustrated about what has just happened. She searched around for Raphael. Leticia couldn’t find her brother at all in the pitch dark night!

What could've been a normal family dinner night ended in a disaster for the Hernandez family!

So many questions plagued through Leticia's mind: What secrets did Raphael mean? Who is this damn group that her brother was raving about?

Little did she know later, answering these questions would turn her life upside down.