Kill Phil (Phan)

The Basement Dweller

I turn on the lights, and look around the basement. There only appears to be one room, but it's pretty large. There's a bright green sofa, and a couple faded yellow chairs. There are bookshelves lining the walls. The room smells faintly of flowers. It's kind of cold, which is a nice escape from the summer heat. I see the bag that fell, and pick it up.

I walk back up the stairs to tell Phil about my discovery. "You have to come see this place, Phil. It's magnificent," I tell him.

Together, we manage to get all of our stuff down the stairs.

"Woah," Phil says, studying the basement. "What is this place?"

"I''m not sure, but it's cool, isn't it?" I smile.

"Yeah," he says back.

"I love it here!" Dylan squeals as we let him out of the stroller.

Suddenly, we hear another person running down the stairs. Phil and I freeze as a small cloaked figure appears.

The person pulls down their hood, and looks to us.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" the person asks us. They're squinting at us, and I can tell they're trying to be intimidating. They aren't very good at it though, they look like the type of person who wouldn't hurt a fly.

The person has a thin face, and pale skin. Their hair is short, and very dark. They're pretty short, which adds to their innocent appearance.

"I'm Dylan, that's Phil, and that's Dan!" Dylan tells the person. "What's your name?"

"I'm Max, what are you doing here?" the person says, looking down to Dylan.

"Nice to meet you!" Dylan responds.

"Um, Max, we're really sorry, we didn't realize anyone lived here. We're currently traveling, and were looking for someone to stay, and one of our bags fell down the stairs so we came down here to get it, we're so sorry to intrude," Phil says quickly.

Max looks up, and takes a moment to study us. "I can trust you. It's fine I guess, it's not everyday I get company, it's pretty rare for anyone to stumble into these woods. You're welcome to stay here, if needed," they eventually say.

"Yay! Thank you miss!" Dylan says. He runs over and hugs Max's legs.

"Please don't call me miss. I'm genderfluid, and terms like miss make me uncomfortable. I use they, them, and their as my pronouns," Max explains, as they bend down to hug Dylan back.

"It's nice to meet you, Max," I say. I'm glad Max doesn't seem too upset about us intruding.

"So, where are you guys going? There's not really much around here," Max says, squinting Phil and I again.

"Well, um, we're just kind of exploring I guess. We needed a bit of a holiday," Phil says nervously. Max squints, but accepts Phil's explanation.

"Do you guys want to crash here for a while? There's plenty of room, and this area is pretty secluded," Max offers.

"Really? That sounds great!" I smile. Nobody can find us here, and I feel like Max is trustworthy. Plus, they randomly decided that we were trustworthy and invited us into their home, the least we can do is trust them back.

That is, unless they're a serial killer, who claims to never get visitors in attempt to pressure their newest victim into staying and falling for their tricks. But that seems to be unlikely.

"Yay! I wanna stay with Max!" Dylan exclaims.

"Well then, I guess it's settled!" Max smiles. "I'll get your rooms set up! How many rooms do you guys want?"