My stepbrother was showing off some little Bibles he’d gotten from school, and he and my stepdad started chatting about religion since my stepbrother was curious. In the middle of their conversation, my mom asked me what I wanted from the grocery store since she was placing the order. Wanting to be funny, I made a joke: “Yeah, you should get me a Satanic Bible, you know, just to even things out in the family.” Just to clarify, I’m not even a Satanist. My family’s not really religious; my mom’s agnostic, and my stepdad’s more like a lukewarm Christian. Apparently, my stepdad didn’t take it the way I intended. He got super serious and started going off about how I wasn’t going to bring “evil” into his house, telling me, “You shouldn’t mess with that kind of stuff.” I started laughing—nervous laughter, probably—but also because, honestly, he was completely taking the joke out of proportion. My mom kept telling us to drop the subject but hes always so annoying with me whenever im wrong about something so i thought i could give him a taste of his own medicine. Satanism isn’t even about Satan; it’s about being your own god. But he was acting like I was about to start sacrificing people or something straight out of a bad horror movie. I tried to explain that, but he wouldn’t even let me talk. I couldn’t get a word in, and eventually, I just stopped trying. My laughter kept growing, more uncontrollable, and the tension kept building until he snapped. He’s never yelled before, but this time, he was losing it. He yelled, “YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY? DON’T LAUGH AT ME! IF YOU BRING ANY OF THAT EVIL INTO MY HOUSE, I WON’T HESITATE TO THROW YOU OUT, AND THERE’S NOTHING YOUR MOM CAN DO ABOUT IT!” I was stunned. I literally had to cover my mouth to stop from laughing. He stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him, all over what I thought was just a joke. My mom, who’d been sitting in the living room, just looked at me and said, “I told you to be quiet. He has some bad memories dealing with stuff like that, things you don’t know about.” How was I supposed to know? I had no idea it was a sensitive subject for him, and if I had, I never would have made the joke. Now, I’m just sitting here in silence, waiting for him to come back home. So aitah