Stretching time out to process his words, she deftly and firmly adds:

     " I did not apply here to purposely harm anyone! Especially not children. "

     " Oh, really? " His sarcasm is tinted with genuine interest, he's clearly keen to find out whose blood soiled her overalls.

     " Take my blood, Dustin. " She lets a triumphant smirk stretch her delicate lips, keeping her eyes solidly anchored into his determined gaze, using a tone so natural that she could have been telling him about the weather in the same voice.

The extraterrestrial innocently traces miscellaneous shapes across her hand with the shard of porcelain, gathering the nerve to cut. Suddenly, with one smooth and worryingly precise motion, she slits a section of her upper arm open. She does so without even flinching, hoping that her blood runs dark red. To her dismay, as her stare falls to her new injury, she learns it has retained its original coloration. The caretaker's dark brown eyes are attracted to the thick translucent substance dripping from the alien's left-side arm where, in the end, she did indeed hurt herself with the pieces of plate. The cut is deeper than she expected it to be when she slid the sharp edge of the ceramic inside -  then out - of her skin, and her unconventionally colored blood is oozing out of the thin gash. This phenomenon is also due to its density, since an Exon's blood weighs on average 0.7 times more than an Earthling's blood.

     " What are you? " His voice is hoarse and low, but he appears amazed. The question isn't threatening; it's an awestruck comment, a display of simple curiosity.

Regardless, she knows nothing of his intentions. Incidentally, the young teacher yearns for her new human life to start, untroubled and free of hurdles... And the only way to achieve this is to get rid of his memory and escape. X slithers into his mind with ease, as she has already done when she was confirming his identity the day just before. However, an indiscernible force promptly pushes her out of his thoughts, startling her. Without taking the time to filter her own ideas, the female proudly retorts:

     " I could ask you the same question! "

She simultaneously shoves him away from her, scarcely managing to stop her hands from trembling. Propelling herself towards the doorframe with the help of her lower back, which had been - until now - leaning against the countertop, the alien presses her right palm to her wound. Unsurprisingly, Dustin briskly recovers from her half-hearted assault and hurries to block the arch's access. X rapidly picks up her apron from the tile flooring, ready to be done with this predicament, but the loud slamming of his fists on either side of the wooden doorway convinces Xarya to back away.

Could she take him in a fight? Most definitely.

Yet, her recent cut discourages her to attack him... For the time being, at least. For what feels like an eternity, they simply stand there. Him, bulging his muscles underneath his black shirt and keeping his stance. Her, attempting to slow down the flow of blood from her injury while imagining different scenarios that could potentially end this unfortunate exchange.

Earthlings seldom possess brains that are remarkably demanding to enter, but even if the extraterrestrial has experienced such difficulties before, what she felt when she tried to alter his psyche was unlike anything she ever faced inside another being's mind. Minds are the only creatures she is aware of that could muster enough mental strength to kick her out of their skull. As a Half-Breed, her own brain is significantly weaker than a Mind's, but still stronger than a Brain's. That is what she has been taught since forever and she has never witnessed anything that disproved this theory. Up until this very moment.

X sighs, realizing that she cannot wait for much longer. If she loses too much blood, her human form could morph back into her original Exonian one. And that's not a risk she's willing to take. By all means, she must remain in this body. She has to. No matter the consequences.

     " Dustin, whoever's blood stained my clothes, I need to leave. "

She arches her right eyebrow defiantly, expressing she won't accept refusal.

     " Only if you tell me whose it is, Xarya, so I can report you to the board and have you arrested afterwards, " he drawls with a mischievously honeyed voice.

     " With what proof? " Her unbothered appearance collapses quickly, revealing a threatening grin as the young teacher's pitch black eyes begin sparkling.

     " Just give me a name, Miss Pepper. I'll be a gentleman and let you tend to your injury before dragging you to Mister Beaufort's office. "

     " No, you'll be a gentleman and keep that mouth of yours tightly shut about what you saw... "

The custodian is visibly taken aback by how menacing and unformal she suddenly became, whilst somehow preserving her tone immaculately soft, light and cheerful. He hesitates, seemingly deliberating mentally about what his reply should be.

     " Leave the orphanage, without handing in your resignation. I won't say a word of this, no questions will be asked... " His sentence trails off and when he goes on, an emotion flickers inside his somber eyes, although the alien cannot tell what it is.

     " Just tell me who you hurt so I can check up on them. "

     " That is not an option, I'm afraid. "

The man furrows his thick brow, both in frustration and apparent confusion. 

     " ...I'll be watching you, investigating your past and trying to expose you. Wouldn't you rather escape from here? "

     " I promise not to harm any more of my students, " she states.

After all, that is the truth. Xarya doesn't wish to resort to her former ways, especially not after deciding she would actively attempt to embrace her human-like existence.

     " You expect me to believe that? " The male scoffs, bitter and incredulous.

     " I only know his first name... Gunner?"

The establishment's head of maintenance stifles a laugh.

     " You're funny, I hate to admit it. "

     " Oh, but I am not kidding. Unless Hadley didn't provide me with his real name... " She adds the second part thoughtfully.

     " Oh, God. Oh my... You, God... I can't f... Jesus Christ. God! " The handyman breaks out into a short-lived roar of skeptical laughter.

X is too eager to exit the room to care about his sudden change of demeanour. Therefore, she applies greater pressure to her increasingly uncomfortable wound, pinching her lips together to distract her pain-reception nerves, and waiting for him to elaborate.

He theatrically steps sideways, freeing the doorway and indicating she can go with his left arm stretched out.

     " After you, madam. I need not worry, for you shall be fired soon enough. "

The caretaker chuckles under his breath, using his right arm to prop himself up against the wooden structure. She instantly rips her focus away from the cocky man, running out of the cafeteria's kitchen. At least, she can hold her apron in front of the blood stains on her overalls. Still, the young woman must find someplace safe, where no one can stumble upon her and witness the strange coloration of her own blood, or inquire about the cause of her bleeding arm in the first place. It would be impossible for her to cross the entire property on foot, enter the teachers' housing, retrieve her first aid kit and discover such a location, all without getting either intercepted, followed or seen. Unfortunately, her only viable alternative is to wander into the surrounding woods at nightfall while freshly injured.

Ducking under tree branches and narrowly avoiding the natural death traps of the uneven forest floor, the Exon scans the tall trees in search of a small clearing or an unoccupied cave. Finally, she spots a humongous tree, with roots so massive that the top of her head barely exceeds them in height. Exons are drastically taller than Earthlings, but even if she currently has more human proportions, Xarya is roughly five-feet-nine.

The extraterrestrial sits with her back against the tree's bulky trunk, catching her breath. Ripping the apron into hand-made bandages, she eventually covers her cut.

Is she going to lose this job after everything she's been through to get it? Why wasn't she able to mold Dustin's mind according to her will? How did he know she was... Different? More importantly, is he a threat? He gave up on withdrawing an amount of her blood and let her leave, but he appeared certain that her first day as an educator for the Beaufort Orphanage and Educational Institute would also be her last... How would a troublesome eighteen-year-old become a person of influence among the administration of the orphanage that welcomed him? Surely, he wouldn't tell anyone about the... Incident.

The alien heedfully gets up from the mossy ground. At least, her colleagues won't be able to see her wound when she arrives to the teachers' lodgings. She steps forward, but the loud snapping of a branch against the forest floor entices her not to advance any further. She deftly drops to her knees, silently, listening to the gentle evening wind swirling throughout the golden and red autumn leaves dangling from most of the trees. The noise came from behind the tree and seemed to emanate from particularly far away, so she doesn't believe she's in peril. Anyways, dangerous people wouldn't be roaming around an orphanage, would they?