They were driving to Carlos's house. Well, he was driving, she was reading yet another article about "Brightburn", this one about whether or not he was even human under the mask. It was mostly garbage—one of the theories even saying that he was actually a colony of insects that only flew in a human shape to appear less conspicuous—but she couldn't keep herself from reading everything she found about him, even ridiculous speculation. That is, until the screen in her phone flickered, making her frown.
"Oh, damn," she said.
"What?" Carlos asked, his eyes on the road. He was taking the fact that he only had a learners' permit very seriously, even if he had deliberately taken a longer route just so he could drive the car a little bit more.
"My phone," she answered. "The screen is failing. Piece of crap, only a little more than a year and it's already failing."
"My dad says that they do that on purpose, to make people change their phones every year," Carlos said.
"That's awful."
"So he says, but such is life. Maybe next you should get a..." He was interrupted by his phone ringing at that moment. "Must be my mom, wondering why we're taking so long."
She giggled at that. His mother didn't need to worry since they were parking in front of the garage right at that very moment. After she unfastened her seat belt, he made her turn her head and gave her a kiss. She did her best to push away any memories of Brandon and enjoy the kiss, but when Carlos opened his mouth a little to deepen it, she couldn't help but pulling away awkwardly.
"Sorry," she whispered, averting her eyes.
"It's alright," he said with a small smile before turning to look back at the house. He frowned.
Caitlyn was about to ask if he was annoyed but then she looked at the house too and noticed that all the lights had gone off.
"That's weird, they were on just a moment ago," she pointed out unnecessarily.
"Yeah, maybe the power went out or something," he said.
She looked at the rest of the street and could see that all other houses still had their lights on. Uneasiness creeping down her back, she said "but it's only here."
As if to answer her, all the lights went out in the rest of the street too. She frowned even more now.
"Huh," Carlos said. "I guess it is the power."
"I suppose..." she said, and left the car after him, trying to ignore the feeling that she was forgetting something.
After he opened the door and they walked in, he called out, "Mom? Dad? You around?"
There was no answer but she still followed him as he went into what she assumed was the dining room.
"Mom? Dad?" He asked again.
"Hi Carlos," a voice coming from a person sitting at the head of the table said. It was far too dark to see who it was, but Caitlyn knew that voice, even if it was somewhat deeper than she remembered. Goosebumps broke out all over her skin and her heart froze, paralyzing her on the spot.
"The fuck?" Carlos said as he walked in, not noticing that Caitlyn didn't follow. "Who is there? Who the hell are you?!"
"Good question!" Brandon said. "Why don't you ask your... companion?"
He'd paused before saying the last word, and Caitlyn knew him far too well not to notice his anger the moment he said it, even if his voice didn't betray any emotion before that.
"What?" Carlos asked, and then turned to her. "Cat? Do you know this guy?"
"I..." she was incapable of speech right then. "He... He's... Bra... Bra..."
"What?" Carlos asked, now confused at her inability to speak. "Who is he?"
"I think the word she's looking for is 'Brightburn'," Brandon offered, and Caitlyn could hear the mockery in his tone.
Carlos widened his eyes like saucers and turned back to the stranger, who helpfully let his eyes flash red at the same time as all of the lights turned on at once. That's what she'd been forgetting; her phone didn't have a problem at all. Brandon was sitting at the table, alone. His hair was a bit longer and his face was a little thinner than the last time she'd seen him, but he was still very much Brandon. Other than his red eyes, he looked normal, dressed normally, he didn't even have his hood and cape. He was smiling, though, but she wished he wasn't, his expression made him look like a wolf about to attack. He looked feral, and the smile highlighted that instead of making him appear friendly.
Brandon's eyes were fixed on her until Carlos seemed to finally recover the ability to speak. He stuttered, "where... where are my parents?"
Brandon looked at Carlos and his smile only widened, she really had to act soon. "I'm afraid to tell you that your parents are... indisposed."
She closed her eyes then, letting a single tear fall down her left cheek. His words from over a year ago, when he had chosen to stop avoiding her and show her his ship, came back to her.
"What... what do you mean?" Carlos asked, but the crack in his voice made it obvious that he had a good idea of what Brandon meant.
Caitlyn opened her eyes again, and looked at Brandon. He answered, "again, I think that is a better question for your companion."
Hearing him say that again finally allowed her to focus. She yelled, "Carlos, run!"
But Carlos only looked at her as if he hadn't understood her words, and then it was too late. He disappeared before her eyes and then she saw him sitting at the table, looking visibly pained. Brandon, for his part, was standing next to him and looking at her.
Before she could even open her mouth, Brandon spoke again, "don't even bother. And don't worry, I haven't broken his bones... yet."
Caitlyn breathed deeply before carefully choosing her words. "Can we leave? We can talk in private..."
He only tilted his head, still wearing that creepy smile. And then he laughed, "come on 'Cat'. I think your boyfriend deserves to know why I am happening to him."
He'd never called her by any nickname before, always using 'Caitlyn' to refer to her; but she didn't have time to mull over this change. When he said the word 'boyfriend', any semblance of a smile disappeared from his face. Now there was only abject anger there, the same expression she'd seen on his face when he screamed at her that she'd tried to kill him.
She all but yelled, "he's not my boyfriend!"
Carlos by that point seemed to have recovered enough from the whiplash to look at her with a hurt expression but she couldn't bring herself to care. If breaking his heart kept him alive, that was a price she was more than willing to pay.
Brandon, for his part, only laughed again, a mirthless, mocking laugh. "Seriously, Cat? After all this time and the first thing you do is try to lie to me again?"
"Don't call me that!" She spat before she could help herself. After a fuming pause, she added, "and it's not a lie!"
"I JUST SAW YOU KISSING!" He screamed, his face again the incarnation of anger. "Lie to me again and I'll rip his head off and make you hang it in your room!"
She had almost screamed back at him, but his threat made her shut right up. That at least seemed to calm him a bit, for he went back to smiling.
"Now, come on, tell him why I'm here," he said.
"Cat," Carlos said in a whisper, "you don't have to say..."
"Shut up," Brandon interrupted and fired a beam into the table, causing a big burn mark. Carlos stopped talking after that and Brandon turned back to her. "Tell. Him."
"Carlos..." she started before clearing her throat and continuing. "Brandon, Brandon was my boyfriend."
"You were Brightburn's girlfriend?" Carlos said, the shock making him forget Brandon's order.
Thankfully, Brandon ignored him and he instead asked, tilting his head again, "was?"
"You left!" She exclaimed, and once she started she couldn't stop. "You left me there! And then you avoided me! I went to your aunt's place and you always left when I arrived! You never talked to me! You never said anything!"
"And just because of that you look for other guys?" He mocked. "Geez, if I knew you were such a who..."
"FUCK YOU!" She screamed, and then found herself pressed to a wall, his body all but pining her against it.
He'd clearly had a growth spurt during the months since they last saw each other because they were now eye to eye, or maybe he was a hair's breadth taller now, which only told her that in two years or so he'd tower over her. Not only that, his body was harder, more solid than she remembered, meaning that he was starting to put on muscle. All of those factors on top of the fact that he was finally this close to her again made her belly flutter like crazy. She hated it, she wanted to hate him, but her body was betraying her. The fact that his chest was all but pressing against her growing breasts only increased her excitement.
Clearly he noticed her changes too because he looked down for a split second before talking.
"Careful, Caitlyn," hearing him use her full name didn't help her situation at all. "Remember that you tried to kill me."
"I'm sorry," she whispered and, in her haze, she couldn't keep herself from kissing him.
He responded immediately, and before long they were full on making out. She had her hands on his shoulders while he had his on her hips, but his right hand didn't stay there for long, soon she felt him grabbing her butt and squishing. Unlike last time he did that, though, that only encouraged her further and so she enveloped his neck in one of her arms while she grabbed a handful of his hair with the other hand. At the same time, she lifted one of her legs and hooked it around his waist. This elicited a grunt from him and the hand that had been squishing her butt grabbed her leg to make sure she kept it there. Right after, he pressed himself against her even more, making her very aware of how glad he was at seeing her again but not only that, giving their position there definitely was... rubbing going on, and that got a moan out of her.
"What the fuck?" It was Carlos's incredulous voice, which broke the spell.
Brandon pulled back and she blushed at his self-satisfied smirk. She knew she should be scared for Carlos, but she was actually glad at his interruption because, without it, there was no way she would have stopped Brandon, even if she still didn't feel ready for any serious intimaacy. But if Carlos broke her haze, Brandon made sure that reality came crashing like a ton of bricks when he turned around a little and let out a bright red flash.
She squeaked out a sob and closed her eyes, letting new tears fall.
"Hey," Brandon said, making her open her eyes. To her horror, she saw him coming in for another kiss.
She quickly turned her face away and pushed against him to no avail. She whispered, "get off."
"No," he said undeterred. Since she was denying him her lips, he simply started nuzzling her neck, dropping little kisses all over it.
She really, really didn't want to like it and was thankfully able to catch herself just before she tilted her head to give him better access. She exclaimed, "no! Brandon!"
He grunted, and for a second she thought he was going to ignore her, but before she could repeat herself he'd taken a step back. He looked at her with a frown and said, "goddammit, don't tell me you actually cared about that asshole."
She covered her face with her hands and let out another sob before speaking again, "he wasn't an asshole! he was nice!"
"And that's why you wanted him and his parents to die so badly?" He mocked.
"NO!" She yelled and glared at him. She was pointedly avoiding looking at the direction of Carlos's seat. "I didn't! I didn't know they were going to die!"
"You really forgot? I warned you," he said, arching an eyebrow.
"No, I didn't forget," she spat. "I just thought that you were done with me! I thought I could try to move on! I didn't want him to die! I would have kept saying no if... if..."
Brandon snorted and she had to clench her fists so that her hand wouldn't reach on its own and slap him. "You try to kill me and then you try to replace me?"
"What was I supposed to do?! Just wait for you for the rest of my life?" She cried, but immediately wiped her eyes in anger.
"Yes," he said, his expression telling her that he thought that was the obvious answer.
He had become even more sure of himself, if that was possible. She didn't even bother to humor his ego this time. "Why did you even come back?"
"Fine, I'll leave then," he said, but he didn't move and his mocking smile and arched eyebrow showed that he didn't really intend to.
Still, she reacted exactly like how he must have expected, and she hated herself for it. "No! Don't leave!"
His self-satisfied smirk was back and she looked away, though still carefully not looking at the table. "I just want to know. I did try to kill you."
"Caitlyn," he said slowly, and his tone made her look back at him. He was angry, but at least no longer murderously so. "You denied it that time, and I'm giving you this one opportunity to explain. Don't even think about joking with that."
The gall of him, they were literally in the same room in which he had just killed her boyfriend, the body was right next to them. And he was demanding explanations to her. Still, she thought better than pointing the audacity out, "you know I would never have been able to kill you."
"Really? I don't know..." he said, he was obviously enjoying this.
"What do you want me to say? I missed you, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you, I've been sad the entire time since you left. Is that what you wanted to hear?" She said, averting her eyes and blushing.
He was suddenly pressed against her again. His voice dropped an octave when he said, "how do I know you're telling the truth?"
"I know what you're trying to do. No, Brandon, I'm not going to do that. Not yet," she said, blushing even more. She looked him in the eye and continued, "you'll just have to believe me."
"Do what?" He asked. He smiled then, a genuine smile this time, and hugged her. "I missed you too."