"Damien...Damien wake up, you're going to be late for school."
Groaning as his eyes slowly opened, Damien shrugged off Ahara's hands that were jiggling him awake. "What time is it?"
"Seven thirty. You have thirty minutes to prepare before leaving."
"But my alarm hasn't gone off yet!"
"That's because you destroyed your phone you..." a defeated sigh echoed in the room. "If you don't get up now, then I'm not coming to the parent-teacher meeting."
That was enough talk to make Damien flip awake and rush to his door, but before he crossed the doorway on his way out, his body froze on the frame. Ahara was back.
"You're back!" Flipping himself around, Damien took two large strides and stood in front of his sister. She was shorter than him now, but only by a few centimeters.
"What do you mean I'm back? I was here the whole time."
Lying again are we?
Ignoring her false claims, Damien took to investigating her body. First, he checked her arms. No scars there. Next, he checked her legs, then her neck, her head, and finally...
"Take off your shirt," he commanded Ahara whose body stiffened, her nose wrinkling as she backed away from him, covering her body as if she were naked.
"What the fuck! Do I look like your wife to you? How dare you tell me to remove my shirt after touching me all over like a pervert?"
Grimacing, Damien bit his bottom lip and cringed at his actions, before vigorously shaking his hands in Ahara's face, his head seemingly glitching as if he was possessed and trying to explain to his sister what it is that he meant by checking her body.
But how could he tell her he suspected she was a man-eating beast, or their killer without offending her or sounding stupid?
"I-I just wanted to make sure you're okay," he stammered still cringing.
"I'm okay thank you very much, but since when does that need me to remove my shirt?" Ahara curiously tilted her head to the side. "Don't you usually just ask if I'm okay and leave after I tell you I'm fine? What's up with checking me out first thing in the morning all of a sudden?"
Ah, damn her and her sixth sense. She was always too quick to catch up with his weird behaviors. It's exactly that sharp intuition of hers that made Damien tell her the truth most of the time. She was bound to find out if he lied to her the next day anyway.
Rummaging every excuse in his now blank brain, Damien closed his eyes and blurted out the next thing that came to his mind: "I wanted to make sure that scar on your back wasn't hurting!"
A deafening silence masked the room, leaving only the chirping of the birds outside to fill it. Then came a low sharp laugh from Ahara followed by a loud thud as she hit his bed stand with her fist.
"Ahahaha!" She flopped on his bed and held her ribs, groaning as if she was in pain. "That's it? I thought you had finally awakened the man in you and wanted to experiment it on me."
"Ewww," Damien curled his upper lip at her. The thought of what Ahara was implying haunted even his bones making him shudder in defiance. It just felt wrong.
"Okay then, I'll remove my shirt for you to see," Ahara mocked in an adenoidal voice, a menacing grin on her face as she tugged the hem of her shirt, but Damien grabbed her hands and stopped her before she barely lifted it.
"Fine. I know you're okay now, no need to mock me," he exclaimed, making Ahara laugh even more.
However, once she was back to her normal self, Ahara pulled her brother into a hug, patting his back lightly.
"I'm okay Damien. Really. I don't know why you've suddenly become hypersensitive about my well-being, but I assure you, I'm fine. Now stop worrying and bring back my ever-smiling obedient brother, okay?"
Letting her shower him with affection, Damien took in a deep breath and sighed.
"I'll go take a bath now."
*****
'I'm okay, Damien,' is what Ahara had said, but the boy just couldn't stop worrying about her ever since the strange ordeal that he had witnessed last night.
Thankfully, Ahara didn't seem to have any wounds when he had checked her, but that still didn't explain her leaving the house at night, nor did it explain her super speed. It only made everything even more confusing now that he knew she hadn't gone out to fight or kill last night based on what he saw this morning.
"Damien."
Why did Ahara leave last night without telling him? When did she come back? Damien had been awake since 1Am, and there were still no signs of Ahara's return. If only he hadn't decided to close his eyes for a moment, then he'd have seen what time she came back home.
"Damien."
Never mind that; how did she get the scar on her back? He knew from her reaction last night that she was lying. There had to be some valid reason as to where she got that scar from or else she wouldn't be avoiding the topic every time he brought it up.
SNAP!
"Damien Amaris!"
Flinching at the fingers snapping in his face, Damien raised his head and met with light brown eyes that belonged to his friend and neighbor, Lucy Monroe.
"Too close," he muttered under his breath.
"Well, I wouldn't need to be this close if you'd just answered me when I called you from the door. What are you even thinking about that's got you staring out the window?" Lucy asked loudly, flipping her hair to the side and crossing her arms.
It didn't escape Damien's notice that the entire class was now staring at him—not that he was invisible considering his height amongst his peers—but he didn't like being the center of attention this much.
But when your friend is Lucy Monroe, attention is bound to follow you wherever you go.
She is a loudmouth, fearless, all-in-one kind of girl and an extrovert down to the last cell in her body—even anxiety must be scared of her from the way she interacts with other people. It just so happened that Damien was one of 'them', but given how they lived next door in the same building complex and learned at the same school, getting rid of Lucy wasn't exactly an option.
"Can you speak a bit lower? I'm not far away from you you know."
"Tell that to your ears, you seem to be having trouble hearing today." Then she gasped, eyes widening as she closed in on Damien's face. "No, way! Did you get dumped?"
That managed to send a wave of murmurs around the classroom as everyone tried to make do with the bits of gist they'd scrapped from Lucy. Rolling his eyes with a balled fist, Damien stood abruptly and pushed his chair away.
SCREECH!
It rasped on the floor, sliding until it hit the desk behind him as the class went silent. Then Damien glared at Lucy whose cheeks were now red from muffled laughter. She was clearly enjoying teasing him, as usual.
"You, follow me." He didn't wait for her before suddenly dashing towards the door, his feet leaving low-sounding thuds on the floor with each step he took.
Once they were outside and away from prying ears, Damien flipped around to face Lucy and exploded in rage.
"What the fuck was that, Lucy? You know the people at this school are idiots who won't stop running their mouths once they hear sugary information like this."
Lucy met his rage with a high-pitched laugh that only fueled Damien's anger, but he held on to himself, giving her time to explain. After minutes of waiting, she finally wiped the tears from her eyes, her cheeks still burning a deep red when she raised her head to meet his eyes.
"That's what you get for making me call out your name like a fool without answering me."
"What about my reputation?!"
"Oh, shut up! No one will diss you, I think it'll have the opposite effect instead. Everyone will want to know which girl snagged the heart of the most quiet yet handsome second year in school. Don't you think that'll make you seem even cooler than you do now?"
Damien hissed at her, lightly slapping her shoulder to let off some steam. "You and your shitty plans."
"You know you like them," Lucy retorted with a smile, hitting him back. She was right, Damien liked her shitty plans.
Even though they weren't exactly what he would call honorable, they did allow him to explore the inner child in him that he hadn't quite yet let loose thanks to his perplexing fear of getting into trouble and adding to Ahara's responsibilities. Lucy was his second-best option whenever Ahara wasn't around, but sometimes she turned into this annoying witch who liked ruining his life and reputation.
"On a serious note though, I was sent to get you by Mrs. Fuggerson."
Damien softened his expression. "Is Ahara here already?"
"I don't know, all Fuggerson said to tell you was that your parents are here for the meeting," Lucy shrugged. She knew he lived with his sister only, so when Mrs. Fuggerson told her about Damien's parents, Lucy was a bit confused. Ever since the siblings moved next door when she was five, she had never once crossed paths with Damien's parents before.
"Guess I'll have to go and check for myself," Damien patted her shoulders, scrunching his brows as he passed by her, heading to the teacher's offices. "See you soon, Lucy."
He didn't remember Ahara telling him about any relatives, so who was it that wanted to see him whilst acting as his parents? Damnit, why was everything suddenly becoming weird?
"Don't be kidnapped," blurted out Lucy as she waved at Damien's back.
"Yeah, thank you for nothing yet again dimwit!"