PHARIS: Flame

A teenage girl stood in front of a woman who's currently busy reading some blood test results. The woman's name is Penelope Hundrel, the owner of Deviant laboratory. She's always busy that she would barely come home and would rather stay in the lab to work.

The girl in front of her is Pharis Hundrel, her daughter. She's still wearing her school uniform as she just got back from school. Unbothered by what she's wearing, she went straight to Deviant to check on her mom. She wants to speak with her mom but it seems like it's not going to be easy. She's been thinking about doing this for a week and now she decided to let her know.

"Mom," she uttered and bit her lip as she played with the tip of her necktie.

"What?" Penelope asked in a cold tone without even looking at her daughter. Pharis bit her lower lip once again. She's having second thoughts for she doesn't know if her mom is going to believe what she's going to say.

But she'll help me right? She's my mother, after all, she thought.

"Pharis, can't you see? I'm damn busy. This is very important. If you having nothing to say, please leave." Penelope said and continued reading the documents in her hand.

Pharis faked a laugh. Her mom is always like this. Busy. Very busy and wouldn't even give her daughter a minute. Penelope would even spend her weekends in the laboratory. Pharis never really asked anything from her mom ever since she's little.

She would understand if her mom's just busy. A mother who's just doing her job to make a better life for her daughter but no. That is not the case. It'll never be the case. For Penelope, her job is the most important thing in her life.

Pharis never felt like she has a mother. Since her dad died, no one celebrated her birthday or any occasions like graduation in their house. Ever since he died, she felt like an orphan.

She looked at her mom spitefully who still don't care about her presence. Penelope clearly doesn't care about what she had to say. Oh, scratch that. She doesn't care about her existence at all.

Couldn't contain her disappointment and anger, she shifted her gaze to the documents her mom was holding, and then suddenly, she felt like her heart was starting to burst in anger as hatred overtook her. Several questions run through her mind. How could a person be so heartless? How could Penelope not care about her? How could she not care about her dad?

Pharis's dad, Manuel Hundrel, died 7 years ago in an accident burning his entire body to ashes. She has never seen her mom cried because of his death. Questions run through her mind as anger took over her entire system.

Before she even knew it, her mom was already screaming while holding her burning hand. The documents she was holding were burning and slowly turning to ashes. Penelope's eyes widened as she looked at her daughter in horror. Pharis doesn't seem to care about what's happening. All she know was that she's furious and her heart is throbbing in pain as tears keep on rolling down her cheeks until she saw her reflection in the glass window.

She's surrounded by red flames and her eyes are as orange as fire. She felt overwhelmed as the truth slowly get into her head. The truth that she doesn't feel anything when she hurt her mom. She felt empty that she doesn't care who or what she destroyed. The red flames slowly vanished as she tries to calm down. This isn't the way she wanted to tell her mom about her ability not that it matters now.

Pharis expected her mom to run away and looked at her as if she was a monster but her reaction was rather an amusement as if she was pleasantly entertained by what she had seen. Her smile widened as if she'd seen something wonderful. Her mom never looked at her that way until today.

Should she be happy that her mom wasn't scared? she thought to herself yet that's not what she feels right now.

"I succeeded," Penelope uttered while touching her daughter's face. She looked so happy and amazed at the same time that she doesn't care about her wounded hand.

"What?" Confused, Pharis stepped back.

Pharis's eyes widened as she looked at her mom who's now smiling innocently.

Her mom tried to touch her but she shoved her hands away from her. "Are you the reason why I turned into this kind of monster?!" she yelled. Pharis is not stupid. Her mom is a scientist and she's the only person who can do that to her.

Why didn't she thought about it earlier? she thought.

"Oh no, sweetie. I wish I could though." Penelope grinned and turned back at her to sit on her swivel chair.

"What?"

Pharis doesn't understand her mom. Why would someone want to be a monster? she thought.

She's aware of her ability ever since her dad died and she has hated herself since then.

Penelope who's on her swivel chair, leaned her head to its headrest while her arms are on its armrest.

"Marrying your father wasn't a mistake after all." She grinned.

Pharis couldn't believe what her mom said and looked at her in disbelief. "What? You thought marrying dad was a mistake? Don't you think dad should be the one saying that?" Pharis replied and looked at her fearlessly and chuckled. "Dad should've never married you in the first place."

"You'll never be born if it weren't for me--"

"I will never want to be born to have a mother like you!" she gritted her teeth as she tried to calm down because she knew she can burn down the lab into pieces. "You're heartless and cruel. I know you never loved my dad so why? Why did you lure my dad to marry you?"

Pharis's fists trembled as her temperature slowly increased inside her body again. Penelope smiled and stood up from her swivel chair as she roamed around the room and returned her gaze to Pharis.

"Your dad is my key to obtain the only thing I've always wanted," Penelope answered making Pharis hate her more.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Pharis asked while gritting her teeth.

"I always knew your dad was special. That he's different from normal humans like me. That is why I decided to make him fall in love with me. Fortunately, he already loved me and was attracted to me ever since the day we met. He never showed me his ability but I know he's different because I've been secretly running him some blood test. I wanted to use his DNA to modify the structure of human genes to obtain an idiosyncratic ability that will make all humans powerful."

Pharis couldn't believe what she has heard. She couldn't believe her mother's greed would be this extensive.

"Unfortunately for some reason, the experiment failed as if his DNA was altered and turned out just like normal human's DNA causing the human experiment to fail. I couldn't redo the project because of his sudden death. I thought I made a mistake until today." she paused and smiled at Pharis as if she's a proud mother.

"You proved to me that you and your dad have extraordinary ability. Now there is a small chance that my project will succeed because of you. A project that will improve human abilities to a higher level. Because of that, I will be recognized around the world," she said and looked at her daughter happily. "You are the key to my dream, my dear daughter," she said and stood up to touch her daughter's face but Pharis just pushed her away.

Pharis gritted her teeth. "No. I won't let you use me. Not with this stupid human experiment," she growled. She's not stupid. Her mom just wants her because of her ability. She's not even aware that her mom conducts a human experiment and she disagrees with that because it's illegal and dangerous.

In an instant, her soft expression turned cold. "If you won't agree then we'll have to do this in a hard way." She grinned and then suddenly a group of men entered the office. Penelope called them earlier the moment she sat on her swivel using a button under its armrest.

They grabbed Pharis's arms and pushed her to the ground to handcuff her. It wasn't a normal handcuff police use. It's ten times thicker and is covering both her hands. She tried to take her arms back but the men are too strong. She was about to use her power when they injected her something, making her suddenly feel weak and sleepy.

"Now be a good girl and follow what mom says," Penelope said and smirked.

***

End of chapter.