REND

Deen stared at me.

“What?” I said.

“The way you’re stirring the tea. I also noticed it yesterday. I didn’t say anything then, but are you alright?”

In accordance with Rule#1, I stirred my tea back and forth instead of the typical circular way. “I'm just used to doing it this way,” I said. “I assure you, I'm very much okay.” I bit off the crust of one side of the buttered toast Deen prepared and took a sip of my tea.

“And tea for breakfast? With eggs and toast? What kind of tea is that?”

“What are you, the breakfast police?” Both of us laughed. “It’s chamomile tea. I’m not British, but I do prefer tea over coffee.”

“Treason,” Deen said, followed by an offended gasp that was obviously fake. “Breakfast for me is only coffee, black, and nothing else. It's a nice change I prepared breakfast for someone else.”

“How about your sister?”

“She’s barely home. Usually eats outside with her boyfriend.” Deen went to the cupboard above the sink. She pulled out its contents and reached for something at the back. It was a golden-colored box with the name 'Twinings'. “I saw you brought over different kinds of tea. How about you try this one out?”

“Breakfast tea,” I said, reading the label.

“It was given as a gift to me, but I don’t drink tea and neither does sis. It’s been hiding away at the back of the cabinet for almost a year.” She sat back down. “That’s not expired by the way,” she hastily added.

“Twinings is the oldest tea brand I think? I've only ever bought American tea brands. I’ll try this one out tomorrow.”

“Another thing I noticed.”

“What?”

“When you ate your breakfast yesterday, you started on the crust of the bread and then the middle part. You did the same for the fried egg as well. Eat the egg white first then the yolk. You’re also doing it now.” Deen shrugged. “Is it weird I find your habits interesting?”

I grinned. “Do you think this is a nature documentary?”

Actually, Rule #2 was the reason for the way I eat—yes, the first Rule was for drinks, and the second was for food. Absolute nonsense? Maybe...but Rules are Rules.

I remembered my grandmother cut off the crust of the bread and threw it away when she made sandwiches. Pretty little kid me thought it was a waste. Grandma should've separately eaten the crust if she didn’t want it with the rest of the bread.

And then it became a Rule. So that's that.

If the food has some kind of outer and inner part, I'd eat the outer part first.

It was fine for some food. For chicken, I'd eat the skin first, followed by the meat. It was weird for others, like I'd eat the pizza crust first—the edge part—and the middle part with the toppings last. That creeped out some people so if ever I craved pizza, I ate it alone.

I tried very hard to comply with Rule #2 while I was previously in beast mode, and I couldn't. I have justifiable excuses! Firstly, I was barely able to keep my mind together with all the rage and power of the beast ripping apart my sanity. Secondly, it was also so hard to do the outer-first thing with my huge mouth. Lastly, my primary goal was to kill them, and not eat like eating dinner or something like that; Rule #2 shouldn't apply.

I touched my mouth. It still felt surreal, as if everything was a dream after I started eating them. I knew it did happen from the news I saw on TV. However, they didn't actually report a huge Adumbrae rampaging at the docks. Some explosion due to incorrectly stored dangerous chemicals was the story. They did report that many 'warehouse employees' died.

It was their fault they died really. They bothered me, forsaking the protection everyone had under Rule #4. Once I was sufficiently bothered that the situation was taken out of the ambit of Rule #4, the life of the person that bothered me was forfeited.

And it wasn't just Rule #4.

It was such a weird feeling. Each time I was attacked, an unexplainable rage coursed through me. I mean, I'd naturally get angry if I got shot. Anybody would. But it was different when I transformed. Like a primal urge to kill who hurt me...to eat them. An insatiable hunger for the flesh of anyone who did me harm.

With the number of people attacking me, I couldn't control the overwhelming rage surging in my body. And that was why I barely had any memory of what happened after I killed Rofirio and his men.

“Are you sure you're alright?" Deen said.

"Yes, I am."

"We’ve been friends since the first semester, but I don’t really know much about you. Since you’re staying here, I guess we'll get to know each other more. We'll need to because we’re on the same side of the fight against Adumbrae.” There was intense conviction in Deen’s voice at the last part of her sentence.

I was indeed staying at her house.

After that incident, the league of superhero wannabes decided, and to which I agreed, that staying at my condo was dangerous. Deen offered for me to stay at her luxurious house so that at least I'd have company and protection. She assumed I wouldn’t agree to be protected by the others, and she was correct.

To me, it seemed like she had awakened her powers to some degree, and that gave her confidence to volunteer to guard me against whatever enemy we were facing. After packing my things, we went straight to her house and I already stayed here for the past two nights.

The reason I agreed to such an arrangement wasn't exactly what Deen and the others thought. They assumed I wanted to be safe in case the criminal organization headed by the Mark and Big Marcy brothers, or the 2Ms for short, came to visit me again—that was only partially true.

I realized something was missing in all of this...

Why did the 2Ms kidnap me?

Dario's group sold the story to Deen and me that the 'man' who attacked us at the mall was sent by the 2Ms. For their part, I suspected they thought the mysterious woman with the monster mouth Myra encountered at the mall was the one sent by the 2Ms.

Both weren't true.

The 2Ms shouldn't even know about me.

How would they?

Unless someone from Dario's group leaked information about me somehow, whether intentionally or not, to the 2Ms.

Myra perhaps? But they kidnapped her sister. Hmmm.

What the 2Ms wanted from me, I had no idea. However, it was clear I wasn't safe on my own, but I also didn't want to be with Dario's group. Staying with Deen was the best option. And her place was awesome. It was like I was having a vacation here.

“Are you sure you’re okay with still eggs and toast today?” Deen said. "I haven't prepared anything else."

“Yup, they’re good.”

“I’ll make something different for you tomorrow.”

“You really don’t have to. I can cook for myself.”

“It’s fine, I wanted to practice cooking anyway. To take my mind off things.” Deen looked at my plate. “Are you already finished?” I nodded and took my plate and cup to the sink. She said, “We can go now to visit Ramello at the hospital. It’s best to leave early to avoid the rush hour.”

 

---

 

Ramello was admitted to First Pioneer Hospital. Or rather, Reo and the others dropped him off there anonymously and ran away after.

I was glad Ramello survived and got the medical treatment he needed. It was a nice and comfy hospital. He almost lost his life protecting me and that should deserve the highest honor. Unfortunately, the nurse told us that he was still unconscious even if no longer in a critical condition.

“We can’t visit him?” Deen asked the nurse.

“No, ma’am. Only family members with identification are allowed.”

“I thought friends can visit, right?”

“Ma’am, the patient is currently under police protection. We were informed he's an important witness to a crime.”

“We just want to see how he is. We’re his classmates. It'll be fast.”

The nurse didn't relent. “You can take that up with that detective over there,” she said, nodding at a tall man wearing a brown trench coat who walked out of the elevator followed by two uniformed cops. With that final rejection, she left us and went back to her work.

Deen and I looked at each other before approaching the man. He was discussing something with his companions. We didn’t talk to him, just lingered for a moment nearby to catch what they were talking about. The guys in blue referred to him as Lieutenant Hall.

“That guy is a close friend of Ramello,” I said. “He mentioned him before. They are close enough that he considers him his uncle.”

Deen pulled me into the elevator. "Let's go up and find Ramello," she said.

"But we don't know which room he's in?"

She waved her hand over the elevator buttons. She pressed a floor and the buttons lit up as we passed by their respective floors. “They came from the sixth floor.”

I raised my brow but didn’t say anything. That has got to be her superpower.

But what was it?

When we exited on the sixth floor, we separated to look for Ramello’s room. It was easy to find because it was the only room on that level with a policeman posted outside. We didn’t go near, we were moving suspiciously enough but instead went back down.

“Ok, we now know how the situation looks,” Deen said.

"Do you think they already know Ramello was at the docks with me?"

"I don't think so. If they did, the police would've already come looking for you."

"True. But I should be prepared for the possibility I get investigated. There were cameras at the train station showing us together."

“Let’s go meet the others to talk about it, and also to plan how Dario can get in Ramello's room to muddle his memories.”

“You’re not calling him Blank?”

“We’re not on a mission and I haven’t been on any mission with them yet. By the way, how are you holding up?"

“I...I'm good.”

She patted my shoulder. “I know you don’t really want to be a part of this, but these are the cards the world dealt us.”

I nodded with a depressed look on my face.

“We will all get through this alive. I promise you that.”

I did not respond and only smiled at her, following her back to her car. Deen's definitely on my side.

What about the hero wannabe gang? Were they friend or foe?

I don't know.

Nonetheless, I needed them for my protection. They knew about the criminal organization that was interested in me. On the other hand, one of them may be a danger to me. Of course, there was also the matter of punishing Myra, Dario, and Everett under Rule #4. But that had to take a backseat for now while I sorted this shit out. I didn't want to get kidnapped again.

Something useful did come from that kidnapping. Rofirio, that purple-haired creep, essentially confirmed there was a way to stop, or at least slow down, the Adumbrae taking over the mind while retaining the powers they gave—it was with consuming brains of monsters.

That was it, right?

Right. There was...this feeling...telling me I should consume others with powers to save myself. Was this urge just a residue from when I was in beast mode?

I didn't have any clue how to stop the Adumbrae from taking over my body. It should be impossible; that was general knowledge. However, the Adumbrae working with the 2Ms might've found a way. That was their goal after all. And maybe, that was what Rofirio was doing.

I couldn't expect any help from Dario and his group. They'd kill me if they knew I was an Adumbrae. But what if I tried out what Rofirio said?

That was why I ate him back then.

My thinking may be wrong, but so far, the only visible abnormality on my body remained to be the small crystal on my palm. It hadn’t grown or anything. And I was able to return to my human form after transforming into a huge monster.

So, maybe I'm right!

Rule #8 prevented me from killing myself, which consequently meant I also couldn't throw away my sole lead at survival. I planned to use Dario and his group to get me to the rest of Rofirio's group, their experiments, the Adumbrae among their ranks, any information that could help me, and all potential food to consume.

But what if we eventually won? What if there were no more bad guys? No more food for me?

We will all get through this alive, Deen’s promise echoed in my head as we traveled in her car.

No.

That wouldn’t happen.

After I eat all mutant experiments, all the Adumbraes I could find, and there were no more, I'd move on to the remaining group of people with powers. I gave Deen a sideways glance as she concentrated on driving. I had no qualms eating Myra and the others, but I made a mental apology to Deen because there may come a time I'd have to eat her too.

Only I will get through this alive.