"What?" He asked once he noticed her face.

She wordlessly passed him the phone. She had to let Brandon know, any alternative was risible at best. Whoever this person was wasn't going to stop Brandon and inconveniencing him had always proved worthless. Besides, why trust this unknown over someone that was for sure never going to hurt her.

He read the message and his eyes flashed red, but he otherwise gave no indication of being angry or anything at all. He passed the phone back to her and asked, "do you know who it is?"

"No, no idea," she replied. "This is the first message like that I ever get."

"Let me know of them every time," he ordered.

She nodded before asking, "do you know how to track them?"

"No," he admitted. "But I'd rather be prepared for whatever they might try on me... or on you."

His eyes flashed red at the last sentence. It was clear that he was more concerned about her than about himself. Yes, showing him the message right away was definitely the correct choice.

"What do you think I should do? About... this," she asked.

"I don't know," he answered before adding, his eyes on hers. "What do you want to do?"

"I think I should play along," she suggested.

"How?"

"I don't know. If they ask me anything, I'll try to answer... as close to the truth as I can obviously, and pretend I'm following their instructions. Maybe that way they'll reveal who they are," she said.

"And then what?" He asked, now seemingly far more interested.

"I... I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't..." There was a flaw in her plan that she had just noticed, way too late. Obviously Brandon wouldn't leave this person alive, and would probably make an example of him.

"No, do it," he said, as if he had read her mind, his eyes flashing red once more. "It's the only way to make sure that nobody tries anything against you."

"But..." she started.

"Would you really want to be kidnapped of worse?" He asked, an eyebrow arched.

"Why would I be?" She asked, rather unnecessarily.

"Come on, you're smarter than that," he said with a smirk. "As soon as they found out I had someone, they would try to see what they can do to that someone, if only so they could try to stop me."

Suddenly, her hands were trembling, so she clasped them and set them on her lap, away from his sight. He'd considered scenarios like this already, even though he hadn't even been with her for a long time, and what he was saying made a lot of sense.

Squirming in her seat, she asked, "what could we do? What should we do? Brandon, I don't want to..."

"Me neither. If they do something to you, I'll destroy this world. I fucking swear it, I'll protect you. Nobody is going to harm you," he said, clenching his fists on the table.

However, she didn't stop shuddering and looking around them, at the other tenants. "But you can't know everything that could happen..."

He looked away from her then, setting his eyes on the windows, clearly annoyed about being reminded that, despite all his power, he still had limitations. "What's your plan then?"

"I don't know!" she whisper shouted. Neither of them said anything, until she looked at her phone once more. "What about a warning?"

At that, he looked back at her to ask, "what do you mean?"

"What if you publish a video. Dressed as... you know... as 'Brightburn'," she offered.

"And say what?" He asked, but his face showed interest at her idea.

"I don't know!" She said. "Something about how you'll punish whoever hurts anyone close to you or stuff like that. You know, like in the movies when the bad guy shows a message through all TVs. Only we don't need to do that, you could just upload it to social media and I'm sure it'll go viral. Everyone will watch it, and that way they might not do anything to me."

He pondered her words for a moment, but then asked, "wouldn't that only confirm that they can attack me through you and that I'm worried? It'll show a weakness."

She put her face on her hands. Through her fingers, she asked, "then what's your idea? This is the best I can offer right now."

He stared out the window again, deep in thought. After a minute or so, turning to look at the empty table, he said, "the only other choice would be to keep you completely hidden, but I don't want to do that."

"Neither do I!" She exclaimed, lifting her head to glare at him. "I have a life!"

He looked at her before sighing. "Fine, we can try the video thing, I'll think of what to say without showing that they can get to me."

"Good," she said with a small, short-lived smiled. Sighing, she spoke again, "Brandon..."

She interrupted herself as she wasn't sure how to actually phrase what she was trying to say. Fortunately their food arrived then, giving her a bit more time to think.

After the waitress left, he asked, "what?"

"If they know I'm close to... well, to you, it's only a matter of time until they figure out who you are, I think," she said.

"How so?" He asked, though his tone gave away that the idea had occurred to him already. He was more asking her what she thought on the matter.

"Well, if they know about me, it wouldn't be hard for them to find out that you were my boyfriend at the time... 'Brightburn' started and that your parents died in a weird accident at the same time. You'd be the most likely suspect," she explained.

He nodded, wordlessly prompting her to continue.

"What are you gonna do?" She asked.

"I'll keep doing what I'm doing," he said with a shrug. "I don't care if they know who I am or if they think they know who I am. I have no reason to accept whatever they think they can do with that information. They can't threaten me."

"Can we at least do that video before you go do... your thing again? I'd rather not be in danger if they think they can actually do something to me to get you to stop," she said.

He glared at her. "I'm not going to put you in danger."

"I know, I know!" She said. "But... still, please?"

He frowned but only nodded after a pause, and then they ate in silence.

After he was done with his eggs, he spoke again, a weird smirk on his face, "you do realize that, if they really are convinced that you are my girlfriend, or whatever it is they think, that your mother is in danger, right?"

She almost choked on her orange juice as she looked at him in fear. "What?! Why?!"

He shrugged before answering, "if they think they can use you to get to me, they'll use your family to get to you, and you have no other family."

He wasn't even done talking when she had already jumped out of her seat and running to the door. They weren't far from her house so she could run there, but she'd barely made it three steps away from the dinner when he stopped her.

"Yes, run straight there. If this really is a way to get to you, you're doing exactly what they want," he mocked.

"Hey kid!" It was the waitress, who had just stepped out of the dinner in a hurry. "You haven't paid!"

Brandon glared at her and Caitlyn almost asked him not to kill her right then and there. However, he only took a one hundred bill from his pants and threw it at her while saying, "go away!"

The waitress grabbed the bill and, seeing the value, only smirked and went back inside, not even caring at Brandon's rudeness. The show over, Caitlyn made to move again, but Brandon grabbed her arm.

She spun to face him and all but yelled at him, a hint of hysteria in her voice, "what do you want me to do?! It's my mom!"

He sighed and, saying nothing, walked ahead in the direction of her house, and she immediately fell on step with him. Brandon was visually impatient as they walked, clearly not liking that he couldn't fly, but it's not like they had many more choices. Normally, Caitlyn would have teased him for it, but right then all her thoughts were on her mom and getting home as soon as possible.

Her phone rang with the notification tone as she was walking and she quickly picked it up, hoping it was a message from her mother, only to see an email notification. Not wanting to deal with the creepy spy or any chain mail right then, she just put her phone back in her pocket and kept walking. After fifteen minutes or so, they reached her small house and the door was ajar. With a small yell, she made to run again, but he stopped her on her tracks.

"I'll go first," he commanded and walked on without waiting for her answer. She followed, all but glued to his back.

There was no sign of any breaking in, the door had clearly not been forced, but there didn't seem to be anyone on the house. Once he made sure that the kitchen was empty, he told her to wait there while he checked the rest of the house. He came back after less than a minute.

"There's nobody here," he informed.

She fell on one of the chairs, no longer able to contain her tears. Blinking rapidly, she picked up her phone and dialed. Maybe her mom had just forgotten to lock the door properly. It went to voice mail right away and, her fingers trembling even more, she checked her messages. Nothing. Finally, she pressed on her email notification, willing it to be from her mother, saying that she had only emailed her because her phone was out of charge or some reason.

The email's subject didn't help her any; it read "Be careful".

Caitlyn. Like I said in my other email, I am sending some instructions that you can follow. I didn't send them before because I needed some time to organize my data.

Move away, as far away from Brightburn, the town, as possible. If you can leave the country and change your name, even better.

Try to get away from Brightburn, the person. I know he might be difficult to avoid, but I'm sure you know better than anyone about ways to trick him; hide yourself from him as soon as you can and lay low, then proceed with moving away.

If you're not actually being forced by him to anything, then try to keep your contact to him at a minimum, at least in public. You really don't want any more people seeing you two together. I won't divulge what I know, but there's no guarantee that someone else will be that courteous.

Be more active on social media, if people think that you have a busy life, it will be easier for you to dismiss any accusation that you're connected to him. If need be, just invent stories about what you're doing.

While you move away, avoid places you usually frequent. Seriously, even your own house. If someone else knows about you, that's the first place they will try to catch you. If you're at your house right now, leave immediately. If not, don't go there and ask your family to leave as soon as possible.

Make sure to let everyone besides you and your family know where you are all the time. That way, if you disappear, it'll be known faster. I'll keep tabs on the social media of any acquaintances you give me and I'll blow the whistle as soon as they post about your disappearance.

It's important not to let Brightburn know about these emails. We really don't want any more people dying or for you to be cut off from contact. It's important that we remain in contact, otherwise I can't help you.

KC

She barely even understood the words, her mind still on her mother, so she wordlessly passed the phone to Brandon. He was giving her the phone back and opening his mouth when the window to the backyard exploded and some sort of metallic object fell in the floor of the kitchen, near them. She jumped out of her seat with a scream, but before she could react, she felt a heavy sleep claiming her whole body. She fell on her knees before dropping to her side.

The last thing she remembered before losing consciousness was a distant sense of horror at seeing that Brandon was slowly sliding down the wall, clearly falling unconscious too.