Drew blinked twice, looking at her like she was insane, and immediately cut her off.
"The hell kind of name is that?"
The blue-haired woman, now identified as Xeanoz, glared at him.
"I don't judge you on your name, which is literally just drawing in the past tense."
He rolled his eyes, retorting.
"Yeah, but at least it's normal."
"To me, my name is normal."
She said defensively with her arms crossed, Drew then whispered.
"No wonder you're an alien with that goofy name."
Xeanoz, now irritated.
Lit a tiny portion of Drew's dreads on fire, making a small flame below and moving it towards his hair, he was about to ask another question until he felt the heat, he then paused, unsure why he felt a bit behind his head, but as he quickly caught on he rushed to the sink to put out the fire.
"The hell was that for!?"
She didn't even reply to his question as she folded her arms, kicking both her legs onto the table.
"You know, I could just turn that water into fire, right? You're not doing yourself any good trying to put it out in front of me."
Drew then retorted with another yell.
"Do you realise what you're saying!? What? Does your race not put out fire with water!"
She takes an even more relaxed look, not at all fazed by his yell this time, finding his frustration more deserved than irritating.
"I never said that. What I said is that I can alter elements. I'm not going to tell you how or why, because frankly. I don't trust you as far as I can throw you."
"Which we both know is very, very far, isn't that right, Drew?"
She emphasised as water dripped from Drew's dreads, he gave her an exasperated look. He felt like she was playing the emotionless, mysterious deuteragonist game, and he was playing the loud, idiotic anime comic relief. He shook his head, sick of the predictables, and sat down, reconsidering how he was going about all of this.
"Alright…fine, how about you tell me everything that you want to tell me. We'll sit. Talk. But you have to be straight with me — no rambling, no nothing."
Drew said calmly before he pointed a finger at her as he announced his one demand. Xeanoz looked at him and responded boredly.
"So basically, you want me to vaguely explain everything so that we're both happy?"
He nodded, and she sighed, taking her legs back down.
"Fine, at least you're being sensible now."
"I'll tell you everything I can and want to, in the simplest form. I hope you're happy with unanswered questions."
Drew sighed as this time he folded his arms.
"I know, but hey, trust isn't something I'll get on the fly."
"Especially not with someone like you, got the anime hair, the mystery backstory, and the emo attitude, unless you're the mentor that does info-dumps, I guess you're not gonna talk, are you?"
She was annoyed, although, unaware of what an "anime" is, she could still tell he was insulting her.
"You're not funny. At all."
He shrugged and lifted his right hand, informing her to go ahead. Drew seemed to have understood that the constant fighting was getting them nowhere, so he was now willing to accept what she had to say.
He still felt off about trusting someone with the capability to kill him. And she, too, didn't trust him – yet at the same time, she felt she could. "Why?" she subtly wondered before putting that thought to rest and turning back to Drew.
"Alright, let's start with the easiest one: how do I know your name? Simple, your soul is practically a massive giveaway. I won't go into detail, but to dumb it down for you, your soul tells me your name."
Drew's eyebrow and lower eyelid raised as he gave an expression of disbelief; he didn't understand what this woman could do, and it was messing with him.
Blue Fire. Blue Air. And to top it all off, Soul Reading. The mere fact that souls are real had him on wraps.
"Hold on, you mean souls are real, like spirits and all of that?"
She shook her head in reply.
"I can't say that spirits are real, and I doubt they are, but what I can confirm is that, yes, souls are real."
"Beneath your internal organs, your blood, and every living organism on your body lies the soul."
He gave her a look of bewilderment after her explanation, but also knew that if he came up with more questions in his head, it would just make the information she gave him harder to digest, so he let her continue.
"Then, the second, I want your help. I need a place to stay until I can get back home or find any way possible of returning."
"Just so you understand, I'm not asking you to be a saviour, I'm giving you the choice, to let me live here, or I take the house-"
"-And your lives."
In other words, his life depended on his choice, almost feeling like there was no further option, he spoke, trying to sway the conversation into a different direction.
"Do you even have a pl-plan?"
He stuttered, which Xeanoz could already tell was his bravado and current stillness beginning to waver, as she rapidly states.
"It's a work in progress. Your choice?"
Drew glared at her, disheartened that he couldn't get the conversation to last longer as he mulls over the choice a little more. She did admit that she wouldn't kill them, but who's to say her mind doesn't change over time? What if she chooses to abuse the power she has, and not only bully but also order them around?
These were the current questions on his mind, and as he finally came to a conclusion, he looked Xeanoz in the eyes.
"Fine, yeah, you can stay, but how would you ever convince my parents? They won't trust you if you tell them that you're an alien."
Still calm and composed, Xeanoz took in Drew's question and concern.
"We'll figure something out."
Drew eyed her up immediately as he brought up the one major flaw in her plan.
"Yeah, but didn't you knock them all out? Who the hell's gonna believe whatever sob story your ass comes up with, when you're literally the one person that nobody knows?"
"It automatically makes you a suspect and spoiler alter, you're guilty."
She scoffed, flicking her hair to the right, her three crescent-shaped spikes moving in tandem with one another as she responded.
"Fine, we'll start now if you're so rude that you won't wait a little longer, pull up that thing that you people are using to find stuff."
She ordered. Drew was unsure of what she meant until he realized she was talking about his phone.
"Wait a minute, my phone? God, a month here and you didn't even learn what technology is, it's abundant Xeanoz."
"Seriously shouldn't have taken you a month to learn what this is called."
She had taken offence to his demeaning of her, but she attempted to brush it aside so they could move on. He then pulled out his phone and waited for Xeanoz to speak.
"Search up Black Sect."
Drew swore he had heard that name before; however, it didn't seem to be ringing any bells. So he began to search for the name in the search bar and asked Xeanoz.
"So, what are they?"
She places her hand at her forehead, like she was exhausted of something…more like someone.
"I don't know…Look, I was walking past two boys your age who said they'd use them as an excuse. I don't know, I figured it'd work for us."
Staring at her blankly, he internally judged her decisions.
"Yeah, right, the only lies people can come up with nowadays are that they forgot something, or they never had it."
As he scrolled down, another thought crept into his head, which resulted in him pausing as his finger lay on the phone screen. Xeanoz noticed his hesitation and was about to question it, but Drew had beaten her to the punch, managing to hold himself together.
"Do…do you know anything about unreasonable deaths…like it starts off as paralysis, then you're confirmed dead, and not before long you're okay?"
She didn't know how to respond to such a layered and specific question, but she shook her head as she replied with the neutral tone she continued to dominate with.
"No, not at all, I'll be honest, I've never once heard about an unreasonable cause for paralysis and followed by death."
He slightly regained his composure, annoyed by the fact that he couldn't find the cause for his temporary death, but also relieved that the perpetrator was not behind closed doors with him.
"Honestly, now I'm wondering why I didn't kill you."
He stared at her, offended by her remark, and retorted with an attitude.
"Hell if I know, you're the one that chose to keep me alive, I'm not surprised your bottom-heavy ass probably isn't getting the blood to your brain-"
He stopped as he watched her stand up and walk over. Her face was covered and darkened by her hair. She punched him with a direct blow to his stomach as he wheezed and grasped his stomach.
"You never say that again."
He now knew not to ever make that joke again. He dropped his phone, and Xeanoz picked it up. She read the articles she had him search up and nodded. She then set the phone down on the table and walked on.
"Alright, let's go, hurry up, Drew, you need to put your parents into place if we want to pull this off effectively."
He stared at her, his mouth drooling a bit as he had just managed to lift himself back up, as he mocked her, while still barely able to hold on due to the strength of the blow.
"Fucking effectively, fucking let's go…fucking hoe."
He grabbed his gut and stood up, lightly kicking the table foot.