I'm finishing my bachelor's degree in English literature. I want to be a professor. Teach others to love literature, to dissect novels with love and humanity not emotionless like my current professor. She loves to tear into novels and read deeper into them than what is there. This semester is about current literature. I should be safe, see she doesn't know that I'm a published author. 8 books in and no one has figured out my secret yet. My publisher is good that way. See being a professor is a dream but doesn't pay great. So novels went from a hobby to a career while I studied.

"Today in class we will start reading 'The Destruction of Bobby Sue ' by Arizona T. We'll dive into the different meanings the author presents to the reader" said professor Mae Grumble

"Ah shit" I whispered under my breath. I guess I wasn't safe. Why did she pick that one. Why my book. I mean the whole book is obviously a fantasy allegory of my transition. I wrote it to help better understand my transition and grieve the past me that I never was.

"You'll read the first 10 chapters between now and class next week. After that we'll discuss the meanings of each chapter"

Well I guess I don't have any homework to do. Considering I wrote the damn thing. That frees up a few hours for my other classes. Trying to get this study finished for my biology class.

Class the following week started pretty basic. Professor Grumble asked everyone what they thought the story was about so far. She shot down a few people's responses even though they were actually correct, which is pretty funny. So I decided to screw with her a little.

"I think it's about the main character getting lost in a post-apocalyptic world and then having their dreams destroyed"

"Exactly Mr Meeks. You see how their dreams are discussed, and being build up, and we can see the foreshadowing of the destruction to come. Soon we should see who Bobby Sue really is to the main character"

I about choked I snorted so hard. She can't see that Bobby Sue is the character. Ah damn this will be fun.

I walked little Suzy out to her parents car. I've been her teacher all year and haven't met her mom yet. She has missed every parent teacher conference. Only responds by email, usually late at night. So there's always a delay in communication. Which is ok. I'm up late. Being one of the big 3 heroes means a lot of late nights, being a teacher means a lot of late nights. I basically don't sleep much.

"Moooom!" Yells Suzy as she goes running across the parking lot. At this point all I knew about Suzy home life was that she had a single mom that works a lot. Suzy, unlike most of my kids, doesn't talk about home much. Usually that's a sign of trouble at home but I don't get that feeling from Suzy.

"Hi Ms. Patterson, I'm Ms. Jones" I say while walking up to the car. I gotta keep it brief, Mrs Fantastic is needed in the city tonight. There are rumors that the Dark Queen is planning a bank robbery.

Suzy's mom looks up and I see her, for the first time I'm meeting her mom and I immediately recognize her. Her mom is the Dark Queen. "Oh shit" I whisper.

"Hi Ms Jones, so nice to meet you. Suzy, you didn't tell me how pretty Ms Jones is "

Is she really flirting with me right now? OMG

"Thank you." I don't know what else to say. Yes she's attractive, I've always thought that of the Dark Queen but she's literally the leader of the Knights of Chaos. The reason we're always so busy at night.

"Suzy honey go ahead and get in the car. I want a quick minute with Ms Jones"

Suzy jumped in the car without a word.

"How about coffee tonight Ms Jones or should I say Fantastic?"

"Coffee? Really? You're asking me on a date? You of all people know I have work tonight. "

"True but if I'm having coffee with you, then there's no reason for you to work tonight. You know exactly where I am at"

It made sense. So I agreed.

That was five years ago. Now I'm the Light Queen. The heroes all answer to me. The criminals all answer to my wife. Murders are down 90%, the city is safer than ever, and only one news anchor ever questions why I can't seem to stop the Dark Queen. Of course we laugh about it after our battles, when we're home with our little Suzy.

The creature appeared weeks ago. I don't even know how many now. It's like it's been there forever. Just watching me, smiling, silently laughing at me. Other than that it left me alone. But was always there, floating two feet off the ground, watching me. No one else seemed to notice it. So I just ignored it as best I could most of the time. But today was different. I stopped at Horrorbucks to get a coffee.

I don't go very often cause it's overpriced and crappy but it was the closest place to me at time and I needed a pick me up. I sat down in a corner both, away from the door. I like to people watch while I enjoy my coffee.

In she walked. The most beautiful woman I've ever seen. She could make models cry. Behind her floated a creature too. I hadn't seen another one before. It looked the same but different. I couldn't tell why but I knew it was a little different than mine.

She ordered a coffee and walked over to the table next to mine and sat down. Neither of saying anything to the other but constantly looking out of the corner of our eyes at the others creature. Trying to figure out the difference, trying to figure out our similarities. Why do we have creatures, why are they almost identical, why us??

Then I heard the laughter for the first time but this was from her creature.

"Mwhahhaha. You both have the same desire little one. You both want to kill everyone here" said her creature. Not mine. I was shocked. Even more so when I realized she didn't hear it.

I moved to her table and introduced myself. "hi I'm Clyde, I don't know it's name. Who are you?"

"Hi Clyde, I'm Bonnie."

About 5 years ago the owner decided to make this little cafe 24hrs. He figured he could take advantage of the after club crowd and by him I mean my poor ass that got shifted to over night. I was the assistant manager, was getting ready to become the manager, now I run over nights 6 nights a week.

Why do I work 6 nights a week? Well Sunday night we're closed and no one else has ever covered a shift for me and returned for their next shift. The benefit is I now make $60k a year working nights, pouring 3 cups of coffee a night. From 10p - 5a there's only ever 3 customers.

2 of the customers are the local police. I'm pretty sure they would quit if they met my third customer. See she's a demon. Not just any demon but Lucifer herself. Apparently one evening a low level demon came in and tried my latte. Then wouldn't stop raving about it to anyone and everyone in the other place. Luci said it wasn't actually hell, just a different dimension. Tried for weeks to get me to pronounce the name right but my human vocal chords couldn't do it. So I call it the other place.

Luci was wonderful. We spent many nights talking about how Christianity screwed up and got everything wrong. Talked about Luci spending a century trying to get it fixed but apparently being a woman and a demon made it a bit difficult so she said fuck it and let it be.

I hit the brew on the fresh pot 3 minutes ago. It would be ready at exactly 3:33, when Luci walked in. It was getting close to that time, it was 3:32a and I could feel the tingle in the air. Lucifer would be here soon. The clock turned to 3:33 and the coffee stopped brewing, the lights dimmed, the air sizzled with static, and smoke poured in through the door frame.

"Hey love, good to see you. Coffee is ready"

"It doesn't even phase you anymore does it?"

"Why should it. Other than the showy entrance, your my best customer. You pay 50x the rate tip. You're the sole reason the night shift is profitable."

She looked me over, head to toe. "You know flattery will get you everywhere. My offer still stands. Come to the other place, live forever, open a chain of cafes, and be my lover"

She has made this offer once a week for 5 years now. Every time I turned it down.

"Yes" I spoke before I thought. Then it hit me, I said yes. Before I could think, everything turned black. The world became fuzzy, my feet left the ground, and then it stopped. I stood in a cafe, empty except for a table and chair.

"This is all yours Jimmy. Anything you need to make it perfect, is yours. Just ask. I'll see you at home husband."

It hit me like a ton of bricks. I was in the other place, apparently married to Lucifer, and would have my dream cafe. "Well fuck me sideways"

From behind me I heard a gentle whisper "there's time for that later honey"

I can see entities or creatures. Whatever you want to call them. Usually you just call them John Smith or Jane Johnson. They tend to go by very forgettable names. They want to blend in and you see them as the average person because of that. I don't. I see the truth behind the magic.

The first time I saw this I was about 6 or so. I didn't think much of it because the person had 6 eyes and that was the only difference. The next time I was 14. I ended up in a psych hospital for two weeks. I thought I lost my mind. Until the usual nurse that was on vacation, came back.

She has 8 arms, 100 eyes, and teeth that look like they'll shred your soul. She was also the nicest person I've ever met. She explained to me, after I calmed down from my episode, that I wasn't losing my mind. That she really looks like that and what I've seen is the truth behind the veil.

We talked for hours. She showed me pictures of friends and even from photos I could see the truth. We figured out that for some reason, I was able to see the entities. For the last 10 years it was just the occasional one when I went to the market, movies, etc. But the day I saw Cthulhu at the beach I about shit myself. I mean I was pretty sure my bikini was ruined.

When he saw my reaction he came over to talk to me. Apparently a normal human hasn't seen him since H.P. We talked about H.P.'s books and the horror that he's painted as. He explained that while he used to plan on destroying humanity, he changed his mind. He said humanity is destroying itself and he's just sitting back now enjoying retirement for the next 40 years while we finish ourselves off.

That was great.