An Ally

Pharis awoke in an unfamiliar location, with a child peacefully sleeping beside her. She can recognize her clothes. She's one of the kids that fled from the basement with her. 

She looked around and realized that she was in an old, filthy kid's room, making it seem like it hadn't been cleaned in years.

Her energy is still depleted, and she's too lazy to get up, but she thought that she needs to know where they are first.

She was about to get up when the door opened and a young man entered the room. It's Demian. 

"Oh, you've woken up," he said, making her flinch in surprise. He has a large burger in his right hand and a soda in his left. 

Yep, he finally got his money and things from their apartment. He left Pharis and the kids in the abandoned house and went to the apartment later that evening. 

It turned out that their things are not touched because the police are still investigating the place. Demian is pretty good at sneaking so no one caught him. 

"What are we doing here?!" Pharis yelled and hurled a pillow at Demian, but it didn't reach him. 

She pondered, "Damn, I'm at my most disadvantaged. He's the village's suspicious character." She knows that her body is still weak and if she tried to fight him, she will definitely lose. 

"Where did you take us?" she asked, glaring at him.

Pharis was about to throw him the lamp on the nightstand when the side of her body ached causing her to wince in pain. 

She doesn't remember how she got that injury because the last thing that she remember inside the laboratory was when her aunt Luna is dying in her arms. Then, her senses came back and her mother is already gone. The thing is, she couldn't find Kiel, the man who's with the kids. Pharis is thinking that her mom killed him and then escaped. Well if she's right, Penelope must be badly injured. 

She closed her eyes tightly and tried to bear the excruciating pain a little longer.

"Don't move," Demian commanded irritating her. 

"Why do you care?"

He was about to walk towards me when she glared at him. 

"Don't you even think about it."

"Look, I'm trying to help. You're the one who pointed a blade at me but now you're acting like I'm the bad guy," he justified himself and sipped in the straw of his soda.

That's true though, Pharis attacked him first. 

"If you don't want it, fine. Just let me help the kids at least," he said and looked outside the room. Both of them heard laughters from the outside. 

The other kids are playing in the next room. Demian told them to stay there so the two can rest here. 

Meanwhile, Pharis just looked at him when he said that. "He doesn't seem like my mom's ally because it looks like his age is just like mine. Nevertheless, I still don't know his intentions, so I must remain vigilant," she thought. 

"Where are the others?" she queried.

"They're playing in the other room," he replied this while consuming his burger, behaving like a child, munching on his favorite snack.

"How long have I been sleeping?" Pharis inquired while touching the painful wounds all over my body. It hurt so much that she could barely move. Then she touched her head and noticed that there is a gauze plastered in it.

"About a day," he answered and sat on the dirty pink sofa. 

"Why is this place so filthy in the first place?" she blurted out. "Don't you know how to clean?" she asked in disgust while looking at the place.

"This is not my house," Damien told her while his attention was still on his food. He took the paper bag beside him when he finished the burger and took something in it. "Want some?" he offered a burger.

"No thanks," Pharis answered and laid her back on the headrest of the bed.

"If I'm in my normal state, I would've left this place. For now, I'll just let my wounds heal before I go back to Deviant and take everyone that was left there. I have to make a plan if I want to attack the place and that might also mean that I have to kill her," she pondered again. 

"I didn't stitch your wounds, you know. I'm not sure how to do it, so don't move carelessly or you'll lose a lot of blood," he warned her while taking another sip of his drink.

"Tch," she just said protestingly and tightly closed her eyes. "I didn't ask you to do so."

They were silent for a while until Demian broke it. 

"I know someone who can heal you," he stated and looked at her. 

"What? I don't want to go to the hospital," she uttered. "My mom will easily find me there and I can't let that happen," she thought. Afterall, she isn't sure if her mom is still alive or not. 

"No, that's not what I mean. I know someone who has an ability to heal wounds," he explained, which made her frown once more.

"I don't need a charlatan," she dissented and closed her eyes. 

But then Demian grinned and said, "She's not a charlatan. She's just like us." 

Pharis looked at him, confused. He scorned her when she asked, "What do you mean?"

"Didn't you remember that you used your power in front of me?" He said and bit the burger he was offering her earlier. Well, he's very hungry. 

Pharis suddenly remembered all that happened when they first met. "Yeah, I attacked him and use my power and he's not even surprised about it. Who is this person exactly?" she thought. 

"I know what you're thinking." Demian smiled, sat on the sofa properly and placed the paper bag beside him. 

"First, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Damien Travis Flavier. Like you, I am not a typical human being," he stated this and paused then he bent down to reach the tiled floor with his right hand. 

The dirt from the floor slowly crept its way to his hands, as if he was garnering it. He raised his hands and moved his fingers, to manipulate the dirt. It slowly floated in the air as the dirt gradually solidified into a solid ball the size of a palm. But then suddenly, he jerked his fingers toward his palms, crushing the solid ball of dirt in the air causing it to scatter everywhere.

He looked at Pharis proudly, as if he had accomplished something extraordinary.

"Hmm, okay," Pharis monotonously said and closed her eyes again to rest.

"What?" He asked in disbelief. "Okay? That's it?"

Pharis opened her eyes and stared at him again. 

"Yeah, why? Do you expect me to be astounded or something?"

"Well--"

With a grin on her face, she interrupted him and boasted, "You know, I can burn this place down." Well, not now because she's physically drained but she can definitely do that. 

"I can annihilate this place," he replied with a frown on his face in an attempt to prove himself. 

"Yeah right. You can tell that to yourself." Pharis leered and grinned to annoy him. "A kid is a kid indeed," she thought. 

"Tch," Demian said and ate his snacks. 

Meanwhile Pharis remembered her aunt who died. She couldn't help but feel broken because of what happened. "She isn't supposed to die," she thought. 

Then she suddenly remembered the flashdrive and immediately checked it in his pocket. She can't lose it. 

***