They never left the room. They had a bathroom attached, so that didn’t really count. The woman and the men brought them medicine and food, so they never had to leave.

Or that was what Tigree thought, until the man came and took Phantom from the room. It made Phantom mean and talkative when he came back, bragging about outside of the room.

Tigree wanted to go. She didn’t ask though, because the man had made it clear that Phantom was better than her, and she didn’t want to get in trouble. Besides, Sunny was in the room, and she didn’t want to leave Sunny alone either.

So the girls stayed in the room while Phantom got to leave every day, every day coming back stronger and happier and meaner. He was fed better, and started picking fights with Tigree where she ended curled up on the bed, bleeding or bruised. The man was teaching Phantom to fight. And Tigree couldn’t do much but try to fight back and stop him.

The girls lived in terror of Phantom as he got stronger and nastier. Tigree was almost constantly bruised at this point, having really nowhere to hide, and a younger girl to protect. Sunny hid under the bed, covered by their blanket while Tigree stood guard in front of it, arms crossed as she watched Phantom look at them like they were food.

Tigree grew to hate Phantom even more than she had. She wanted him to leave the room and never come back. She wanted him to get taken out and for the man to leave them alone forever, and for Sunny and her to be safe.

There was no such luck.

But there was a day when Phantom came back from outside the room and he wasn’t standing up tall and looking strong. He didn’t give Tigree an angry look as he passed her standing guard by the side of the bed. Instead, he walked straight past her and lay down on his bed, rolling over so that his back was to her.

It was uncharacteristic of the boy, to leave himself vulnerable like that. Not to mention to not flaunt his power and his strength.

And when he started to vomit, Tigree knew that something was wrong.

There was part of her that wanted Phantom to be sick. To be weak and for her to be able to punch him and bite at his arms the way that he did to her. But she didn’t want to become like him. She couldn’t be like him, not like Phantom who she hated so much. So instead, she walked over to the boy’s bed and picked up the small blanket that had fallen off of it, and put it back onto the bed, covering the boy. “Tigree.” He mumbled, his voice hoarse and barely there. “You’re stupid.”

She took a step back. Even when Phantom was weak, he was still mean. She looked at him, and then glanced towards Sunny for a moment as well. “You sick?” She asked, looking at him. The boy glared at her, but didn’t say anything. “Why you be sick?”

“Dr. Trevor made me sick.” Phantom grumbled, rolling over again.

“Why?”

“Said for making me better.”

“Why?”

“I’m not strong enough, Trevor said.”

“Oh.”

“I beat you up.”

“Yeah.” Phantom glared at Tigree again before rolling over once more and vomiting again. “You strong.”

“Not strong ‘nuff.” Phantom spat, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. “Not smart ‘nuff.”

“Why we gotta be smart?”

“Cause Trevor said!”

Tigree stepped back, her eyes wide. Phantom was really angry about this. It was kind of scary, she thought. He gave her another annoyed look before pulling the blanket over himself and turning his back to Tigree. She stood there for a moment before walking back to the bed that she shared with Sunny and crawling under the blanket with the younger girl. She peeked out from under the blanket at Phantom, who was still breathing heavily.

She hadn’t ever seen him look that weak and tired before. He usually was shouting at her or fighting. And if he wasn’t doing that, then he was looking his best because Trevor was always watching. But seeing him now, sick and tired and angry at Trevor, was strange. And Tigree didn’t like strange much, nor did she like different and everything about this was strange and different.

And she didn’t trust it at all. Trevor had to be up to something, but she didn’t know what. Why would he want to make Phantom sick? Wasn’t being sick bad and made them weak? But he had made Phantom sick and Phantom was still and tired and maybe even scared.

That was what scared Tigree most of all.