Rescue Mindset

"She carried her panda toy and followed his command? Who does this blood drinking, mad man think he is!" Penelope shouted when Max informed her about Lucas taking away Evelyn with him.

The old woman was always addicted to everything that was associated with the individuals across the realms called Gifteds. Needless to say, she was particularly addicted to Max and Evelyn more than any of them.

Max knew Penelope the year he learned he was a Gifted, that was by the age of five just like how Evelyn, and any other Gifted, find out about their powers at that age. Humans hunted the few Gifteds they could find and called them mutants, but never could they lay their hands on Max, all appreciations to Penelope, nor on any of the Gifteds from the realms they didn't know were existing.

Even before he became a Vampire, Penelope stayed close to Max in the shadows without anyone knowing. She showed him how to use his Spider Vision gift in a way that he would not face the bad side effects of over using it. When fate departed him from his wealthy family, he had no one he should care for but the old woman and Evelyn;

Penelope because she served to protect him from being arrested, keeping aside her hidden reasons, while Evelyn because she lost everyone and he felt responsible to take care of her. Of course, Evelyn was a human but considering Penelope's true identity, or where she came from, that one even Max still didn't know.

But he had some doubts that she must either be a witch or something like that.

Coming back to the matter at hand, Max was currently not in the mood to speak to Penelope if she wasn't going to change her mind. He placed his head in his hands as his eyes stared back at his reflection from the white tiled floor of his magnificent bed room. From his olivian skin, one could tell he was not in need of blood or else he would have appeared pale.

Kak!

Kak!

Penelope hit her metallic stick on the floor to gain the Vampire's attention. Her whitish eyes now looking into his brown ones, she continued: "That's what The Mind wants! You even think of following them is a double negation!" She angrily released a ripple of energy from her body, causing a standing flower verse, a cup filled with water on a center table, and the curtains — just out of the many — to blow away in response.

She messed up the room's magnificence.

Max silently thought, his eyes on the broken verse, 'And ah still can't tell what she is, actually.' He cleared those thoughts out of his mind and sighed in desperation — both of his eyes making two invisible holes of fury on her grayed hair.

For some reason, Penelope was resisting his request of knowing where he could find Lucas. He didn't know what to do when he did find where the vicious killer stayed, he wasn't in the slightest as strong as him, but one thing remained a fact: He would get Evelyn back no matter what.

"Double negation gives positivity, granny..." Max retorted softly, standing up and nonchalantly walking past the elegantly tall, old woman to the big glass at the other end. Transparently, it showed him the beauty of Anyway city. It was a Monday morning and it was a damn busy morning filled with busy people in one of the best cities on earth.

Penelope walked like a snail to the big, showy glass, also admiring the beauty of the city with a grumpy expression.

"If ya can understand me, a'don't know where to find Lucas, and a'have no Vampire Melanin anymore which without it a'doubt ah can stand a chance in rescuing her." Max turned his head to the right and stared into the slim slits of Penelope's eyes to search for any tinge of softness: Defiance was all he saw in the whitish slits.

Time felt frozen in here between the two of them but there outside, the beautiful orange rays of the fully rising sun shone charmingly through the spotless glass by Max's left, rubbing its warm rays on his "new" olivian skin that made Penelope wondered if he was truly the same Max she knew before... Before he was reborned by Lucas while she was "peacefully sleeping" somewhere around.

He now looked more alluring and charming even for Vampire Diurnals.

Come to think of it, he was a Vampire and was not affected by the rising sun; because he was at the Diurnal evolutionary stage or else, he would have been doomed.

"Ha, ha. Can you come again saying anything like chance, please? Please? Please? Against that mad man who slaughtered your securities like chickens?" Penelope grinned to display her toothless gums, something she does when angry. "Listen to me carefully you arrogant imaginative boy, you never stood a chance against him." She frowned her ugliness out.

"Granny Penelope," Pushing away all those Evelyn's images his brain kept showing him, and his inbuilt pride as well, "Ah can promise ya to stay away from Evelyn after rescuing her." Max stated truthfully and deepened his voice to prove his seriousness. "Ah can promise ya that times infinity. We away from each other for the rest of our lives."

"I always love honest people, a reason why I hate you." Penelope scoffed. "By the way, who told you Eve is in danger? I believe she doesn't need you."

'I can't keep on begging you for Godamn's sake!'

Frustrated, Max walked to the bed's side and carried one of his car keys. "Evelyn has been in danger since the night I killed her family." He stopped to glare into the old woman's slim eyes. "Maybe ya senile brain never told ya but ah am delighted to do so: Her safety is now my responsibility, so stop trying to make any impossible bridge in between us. You know, doing it is as ridiculous as it sounds."

He smirked meaningfully. "I don't need ya anymore." Moving closer to the old woman, he added saying, "Ah will just use what a'have, Spider Vision." He then dashed away at a speed of lightning, ready to leave the room.

"Alright wait." Penelope sniffed deeply, severally hitting her stick before she stared directly into Max's eyes as much as she could and said: "I can't be so sure of your ability to fulfill your promises but..."

"But what?" He walked back into the room. "Promise is a promise."

For being interrupted, Penelope angrily grinned toothlessness, then she said: "We are getting Evelyn back..."

Max smiled victoriously. "Then let's move..."

"...Under one condition." Pointing her metallic stick at Max, "The deal says you wouldn't use your Gift of Spider Vision." Penelope added sternly with a further grin, her stick up till now pointing at Max.

'Why?'

It has been like that since Evelyn came to his life, using his vision ability under restrictions.

"Giving weak assurances is not my trait. But fine. Where can we get assistance?"

"I definitely know where you can get assistance, Aximus."

"My name is Maximus, not Aximus."