15: Of Decisions & Accidents

Leilyn drives aimlessly around the town, mind reeling in thoughts. She parks her car in a public parking lot and heads for the park. She sits on a marble bench under the park’s Rowan tree and stares at the children running up and down, shrill and excited laughter coming out from their lips as they play. With the sound of kids in her ears and seeing their playful selves, along with mothers having fun with their babies, it only takes twenty minutes for her to come to a conclusion.

She’s keeping the child.

With a sigh, she stands up, heads for her car and drives over to the town’s OB/GYN office, mind made up.

Although she has no idea how this child came to be, she’s going to keep it. Heck, it could be a literal demon spawn that was planted in her belle by Satan himself to bring an end to all of humanity; but she won’t give a rat’s ass about that. This is a one-time opportunity for her to have a kid of her own, one that she can call her flesh and blood.

Due to her status as one of the world’s most famous people, she’s attended to immediately. The appointment goes well. She’s shown the healthy little bundle of cells growing inside of her. A tear or two escape from her eyes, and she quickly wipes them away. She’s given a picture of her growing child, and she hugs it close to her chest.

She’s almost overwhelmed with happiness as she drives over to the mall. Her lips are stretched into a wide smile, her agate eyes sparkling in happiness.

She’s having a baby.

It takes all of her will power not to skip as she heads over to the children’s section of the mal; her prescription in hand. She heads into a high class baby store and almost buys the entire store. She isn’t even moved when the price of everything came down to 500,000 UPCs. She informs the shop manager – who came to assist when she was told who was around and how many items Leilyn was buying (ranging from gender neutral clothes to shoes, blankets and the rest) – that everything should be delivered to her house. The manager hurriedly agrees, a wide smile on her lips. The only item that Leilyn carries with her is a small purple teddy bear, which is so soft, fluffy and cute.

Leilyn leaves the store with happy steps, spinning gracefully out of the opened doors. She looks at the bear in her hand, squealing internally.

This is really happening!

‘I wonder what, and how, I’m going to tell the others.’ She muses. ‘Mom, Sensei, Shinji and Alex especially. Those four are going to skin whosoever knocked me up. Speaking of that, who did knock me up? Like I told Zoranne, I’ve been celibate for years. Did someone implant a fertilized egg in me? And if they did, who? And how? Because Cosmos fucking knows I never had a shot or surgery for years now. Or did they slip it in a drink or something?’ She snorts, shaking her head. ‘Nah. That’s preposterous. But still, how? Hmm… why do I have a feeling that Taesa is behind this? Did she manage to use me as a test subject, like she did to those dead men and women? Hmm… it won’t be above her. She did connive with the government to develop my Animalis Gentem serum into a super soldier drug. The bitch.’

Leilyn feels her mode plummeting and she shakes her head to disperse the thoughts of the vexing past. With a huff, she places a hand on her stomach, a smile finding its way on her lips again as she feels the bump.

Oh well, she’ll cross the bridge of telling everyone about the piccolo (little one) when the time comes. Maybe by then, she’s already prepared for the unreasonable amount of blood shed her clan will cause when they find out that her body was tampered with, without her consent and knowledge. Cosmos, she can already picture Shinji and Sensei’s reaction. Heck, even her mother and brother will join in the chaos. And let’s not get started with Asherai or Anaestiane, talk less of Ogushun. Just thinking about what their expressions and reactions will be like makes her chuckle in amusement. Her family is such a weird bunch.

The rich caramel skin woman then heads over to the drug section of the mall and walks into a shop which sells high quality drugs. She buys the brand of pre-natal vitamins recommended by the doctor. Once done, due to having cravings for some foods, she heads over to the food section of the mall. Safe to say that Leilyn bought a lot of nutritional foods.

From what she saw when her mother was pregnant with Alex, she made sure to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.

Leilyn also buys a little bit of junk food she’s been craving for a while now.

Thankfully, it wasn’t as much as the previous items she bought. She hires two help boys, who assist her to bring the groceries over to her car. They also arrange said groceries orderly into her car. Not only did her full her boot, they also filled her seats.

Leilyn’s nibbling on an ice cream bar that has sprinkles of coconut and hazelnut shavings; watching the two young men load her goods into her car. Her ears pick up a conversation going on a few feet away from her.

“I can’t believe that they’re still missing. It’s been three weeks now.” A woman says to her companion.

By the corner of her eye, Leilyn subtlety stares at them.

“Even with the technology at hand, they still haven’t been found. Not even their bodies have been recovered.” The woman continues.

“It’s honestly strange!” The other woman exclaims. “The Rogers’ aren’t one to suddenly skip town, no matter what happens! Heck, they are the pillar of the church here! I know for sure that they’re either dead or held captive somewhere! This isn’t right!”

“Do… you think that maybe those druggies, Saturday and Powers, have any hand in this?” The first woman whispers – if you could call it that.

“The Rogers’ have been the one taking care of their useless asses, and they too are missing, so of course they are!” The second woman replies. “It’s well known that their children skipped town with Zack Smith, who lost his parents. The poor boy. But I don’t blame them. I mean, who could deal with addicts of their nature? Certainly not me! Those boys did themselves a huge favor by leaving with their friend.”

Jason and Rick’s parents are missing?

Leilyn blinks in confusion. She turns her head to face the two women.

Did Shinji come to take care of them without informing her?

Leilyn brows furrow in thought.

No… from what these women are saying, they have been missing for three weeks now. If her calculations are correct, that means that they have been missing since the day she lost her memories.

‘This can’t be a coincidence.’ Leilyn makes quick work of her treat, chewing it absentmindedly. ‘Are they perchance involved with my memory loss?’

Leilyn’s mind reel in theories, ranging from them wanting revenge for her sending their sons away and she someone beats them but gets a concussion, and magik induced amnesia.

‘Wait what?’ Leilyn blinks, her brows furrowing in confusion. ‘Where did that come from?’ She heaves a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. ‘I really need to lay off on the fantasy books. It’s messing with my head.’

“By the way, did you hear about the meteorite that landed not far from here?” The first woman asks.

Leilyn blinks, coming out of her raving thoughts. She cocks a brow in silent question.

A meteorite landed not far from the town and she isn’t aware?

Honestly, she has to inform Zoranne that she has to be giving her the latest news about this blasted town.

But she didn’t feel its impact, which means it’s not a large one then.

“It happened yesterday. I heard from someone that nothing was found in the crash site.” The first woman continues when the other woman shakes her head at her question.

“Really? That’s odd.” The other woman says.

And really, that was odd. Maybe it might be a satellite and the owners came to clean it up. Governments and their secrets (que an exasperated eye roll here).

“Ma’am.”

Leilyn blinks, head turning to face the help boys.

“We’re done.”

With a nod, Leilyn gestures for them to wait for one moment before she heads over to her car. She reaches for the cash and grabs ten thousand from the bunch. She hands over five each to the two teens, who thanks her profusely. With an incline of her head, she gets into her car, and dives off.

On her way home, she decides to call Shinji. She raises her watch to her mouth and says, “Audio call Shin.” It takes like five seconds before Shinji picks up.

“Hey sis! What’s up?!”

Leilyn smiles as she hears his voice in her right ear. “Hey Shin! How’re ya?”

“I’m cool! So are everyone here. The boys are doing great so far. They’re slowly meeting our expectations.”

Leilyn smiles at that. “I’m glad.” She blinks when a shrill scream sounds in the background. “Pray tell, who’re you killing in the background?”

“Jinsei, Sung-ho and I are taking care of a human trafficking ring here. Some wealthy assholes in Ameraetyr managed to bypass the walls of Afriaeuon and kidnap about two hundred Afriaeuonians and will most likely sell them to sick bastards as sex slaves. Ogushun and Asherai are pissed as fuck. Mostly Ogun; he was practically breathing fire and lightning when we left the Continent. I think Rai managed to calm him down. For such atrocities to happen under their watch is making them boil with fury. To avoid any worldwide disasters – again –, Sensei gave us the job; because he knows that if Ogun takes up the mission, there will be a bloodbath on that part of Ameraetyr.”

Leilyn scowls at the mention of a trafficking ring. Most of the Clan members have high disgust and disdain for this kind of business. Yes, they are assassins, but many of them have various lines drawn to how much they could take. For examples; rape is a no go – Sensei will be the one to personally kill them if that happens –, and the one everyone hates the most; trafficking; of any kind. Human trafficking is one of the most severe crimes you could commit in the Clan’s book and for that you’ll be killed by them when – not if – they find out. And they’ll gladly do it for free. According to Shinji, they’re simply taking out the trash.

“Send my love to them. Do not spare any of them.”

“Already on it, Sis.” Leilyn could clearly see the demented grin on his face, and right on time, a woman could be heard screaming bloody murder on the other end. The sound of blade meeting flesh – most likely from either Shinji’s katana or Jinsei short dagger or kunais –, along with the sound of close range gunshots – likely from Shinji or the traffickers –, a heavy metal being thrown in the air – definitely from Sung-ho’s ridiculously elegant and beautiful double edge glaive –, splashing of blood and the breaking of bones.

“Hey, is the call on speaker?” Leilyn asks.

“Nope. But Jinsei and Sung-ho are listening in on our call.” Shinji replies.

On the other end, Jinsei and Sung-ho greets her and she returns their greeting with a smile.

“Have you found the necklace yet?” Shinji asks.

“No.” Leilyn says with a frown. “I swear Shinji, I couldn’t find it anywhere. That necklace never left my neck since the day you gave it to me, but after that day, I can’t find it anywhere.” She tsks. “And my stupid memory is not returning.” She growls lightly.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Shinji says in a soothing voice. “Don’t stress your head. I’ll just get you a new one.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Shinji chuckles, and along with that comes a gurgling sound; most likely he cut someone’s throat or stabbed a sword into their jugular. “I know you’re one who isn’t careless with gifts given to you by us. There’s a first time for everything.” He grunts, and by the sound of it, they’re coming under heavy fire by the enemy. “Fucking fucktards.” He snarls out, making Leilyn to chuckle at his language.

“Hey Shin… did you by chance took care of Jason’s and Rick’s parents?”

“Nope. I thought you said you’ll do it.” Leilyn could hear him frowning.

“I was, but from what I just heard, they’re missing.”

“Missing?”

“For three weeks now. Same as those Rogers people dem.” Her Nigerian accent and slang make themselves known. She hears someone in the background give a loud snort and another trying to muffle their sniggering. She rolls her eyes with a smile.

“The Rogers’?” Shinji asks. “Do you mean those people we met at the mall that day?”

“Seems like it.” She shrugs.

“Hmm. That’s strange.” Shinji says, and Leilyn could see him holding his chin on the other end. “Oh well. Don’t dwell too much on it. Knowing who the boys’ parents are, I won’t be surprised if they pissed someone off and they’re now taken care off.”

“Hmm. Okay.”

The call descends into a momentary silence before Leilyn breaks it.

“Say, Shinji… what do you think about having a new nephew or niece?”

Someone in the background chokes and the sound of something breaking could be heard.

“What?” Shinji chokes out, clearly haven been cut off guard.

“I said,” Leilyn repeats, eyes giving an exasperated roll. “What do you think about getting a nephew or a niece? From me to be precise.”

“Wha- what brought this on?!” Shinji wheezes out.

Leilyn makes a non-committal noise, shrugging.

“Well, it’s high time I get a kid of my own and- fuck!”

Leilyn shouts as she hits something, car swerving out of control. She manages to stop herself from impacting with a tree. She’s breathing heavily, her heart beating rapidly against her rib cage. A hand hurriedly finds its way onto her stomach, feeling if everything’s alright. Behind her, her groceries are now on the car floor, although they are tied, thankfully, so there’s no spillage.

“-yn! Lyn!”

Shinji’s voice shakes her out of her momentary daze.

“I’m fine!” She yells out, heart calming to its regular beat. She caresses her lower abdomen, looking down at the bump with a small smile. “We’re fine.” She mutters.

“What was that?!” Shinji yells. “Wait… did you just said we?”

“Shit.” Leilyn murmurs, giving an internal face palm at her slip up.

She has gotten attached to the child. Quite quickly too, might she add.

“Lyn, are you with someone?”

“No.” She says in a flat voice. “And if you must know, I think I hit an animal or something. Shit.” She turns back, trying to see if she’ll see said animal.

“Leilyn.” Shinji says in a serious voice and Leilyn could feel a bead of sweat trail down her face at the tone of her voice. “Are you hiding something?”

“Like every other person.” She deadpans. “Calm thou tidies, Shin. I’m fine.”

“Hmm.”

“Well, gotta go. Talk to ya later.” And she swiftly ends the call.

The woman heaves a sigh of relief. Damn, that was close.

With another sigh, she sets the hover car close to the ground and steps out. With a hand laid protectively on her stomach, she slowly walks to the down animal, heeled sandal clicking softly on the pavement. When she sees the shape it was in, she runs over to it. She knees beside it, not caring if her dress gets stained with… black blood?

Leilyn blinks in surprise at the thick, pitch black substance, before looking closely at the animal. She inhales sharply as she gets a good look at it.

It looks to be a hybrid of some sorts. Its body is that of a black panther(?) but its tail is of that of a lion’s, albeit dark red in color. On its head are black antlers and around its neck is a collar, bright sliver in color.

“What the…?” Leilyn mutters, not believing what she’s seeing. Her hand slowly reaches for the face. She slowly runs her hand on it but quickly withdrawing it back when a puff of air hits said hand.

The hybrid slowly opens its eyes, and Leilyn is met with violet eyes so beautiful, that she couldn’t help but gasp in awe. The eyes sparkled, as if there were stars in them.

They look almost like Sensei’s. The only difference is that its eyes are more of a vivid violet than purple, while Sensei’s full on vivid purple with a swirl of black.

The thought of her Sensei snaps her out of her awe and she smiles warmly at them.

“Hey buddy.” She says softly. “I’m so sorry. Let’s get you fixed.”

Leilyn tries to pick them up but they give an agitated huff. They try to get up on their own, but fall back down, releasing a soft cry of pain.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay.” Leilyn places a hand on their head and look straight into their eyes. “I won’t hurt you.” The hybrid gives her a droll look, making her to wince at that. “I’m so sorry. Please, let me fix my mistake.”

The two of them stare at each other for some seconds, before the hybrid gives a curt nod. Leilyn blinks at first, but with intelligence shining in those purple eyes, of course they will understand.

“Here goes.” With a short prayer to whoever's out there that what she’s about to do won’t affect the baby, Leilyn lifts the hybrid up. “Wow!” She stumbles, surprised by their weight, and in the process almost gets nick by the antlers.

The creature, seeing that Leilyn won’t be able to walk faster due to its massive size, shrinks. Leilyn watches in awe and shock as it shrinks into the size of a small, black house cat; well, a cat with little antlers and a strange collar which also shrunk.

Leilyn stares down at the cat in wonderment, wondering what the fuck just happened. She’s brought back by the creature giving a meow, eyes giving her a glare. With a smile, she walks over to her car.

Leilyn sets them down on the passenger seat, not caring if the bleeding creature gets blood on her seat, giving their head a soft caress. The creature gives a hesitant purr when she gives them a scratch under their chin, making Leilyn to smile.

“As stubborn as Sensei.” She chuckles out.

Without further ado, she continues her journey back home; eyes darting from the road to the hybrid, as if they will disappear any moment.

When she gets home, Leilyn brings the shrunken hybrid inside first. She walks over to the kitchen, her gown and sandals leaving tiny trails of blood. She places the cat into the sink, the animal giving her a curious look.

“Let’s get you cleaned up.” She says softly with a smile.

With warm water, Leilyn washes the cat, who doesn’t take its eyes off her and doesn’t flinch when she carefully washes his wounds and broken leg. Seeing as she doesn’t know much about cats, much less hybrid cats – who is a goddamn panther like creature and can apparently shrink and change its fucking appearance -, Leilyn just washes them with only water. Six minutes later, she’s done. She walks over to the towel cabinet in the kitchen and gets a new medium sized towel. She gently cleans them, making sure not to agitate their injuries. Once they’re dried a little, she wraps the towel around the cat and picks them up.

With the hybrid gently cradled in her hands, she goes upstairs and into her bedroom. Without hesitation, she places them on her bed, towel still wrapped around them. She then walks over to where her hamper basket is and proceeds in zipping down her gown and removing the blood stained cloth. She picks it up and folds anyhow, using the clean side to grab the blood stained under. She sets it beside the hamper before making her way over to her closet.

Inside, she heads for her secret drug compartment, and grabs a small needless syringe filled with a purple colored liquid.

In her hand is the finished and updated version of the Animalis Gentem serum. This serum heals any animal it’s injected into and helps keep them strong and healthy, as well as increase their life span. It heals any wounds of the animal in a fast rate, although not all wounds.

Just like the Nano-Healers, they can’t heal grave injuries, especially when they are being eaten. Most of the animals in the woods – well, the little that managed to trespass and get themselves caught in her traps – have this serum injected into them; making them gain extra abilities like fast speed to outrun, or possible kill, a human, super strength and heightened sense of smell and hearing. It’s why most people who trespass into the woods carelessly now either die or… die.

The first time it was in its unfinished state, the serum was unstable. Leilyn, thinking she was done, informed Taesa of the new project she has accomplished. Then the bitch went behind her back and collaborated with the Ameraetyr government to develop it into a super soldier drug. Unfortunately for Taesa and her gang, Leilyn missed two key elements and the serum became more unstable as the months passed.

Due to the unstableness from its very foundation, the results of the super soldier drugs were… dire. It not only ruptured their organs, it also melted their eyes and destroyed the eardrums of those injected. In conclusion, it was messy.

When Leilyn found out what they have done, she called Taesa out, honestly and practically promising her that if she didn’t call off whatever bullshit she had on with the government; Leilyn will deal with them all if they don’t stop what they were doing. And everyone knows Leilyn kept her promises, one way or another. No one, not even the government, wanted to deal with someone of that of great importance and power.

So, they stopped. Well, they thought they’ve fooled Leilyn that they had stopped, but they still continued. With the daily updates Zoranne gives to her, it seems that they haven’t succeeded yet. How disappointing.

Leilyn, with the injection in hand, walks back to her bed. The cat gives a pointed look at the item in her hand, before staring at her with judging violet eyes.

“This is something that will make you heal faster.” She says in a gentle voice. She gets down on her knees, looking into vivid purple eyes. “I promise you that it won’t hurt.”

Once again, they have a little stare down, which lasts for a minute, before the creature gives a curt nod in approval. With a bright smile, Leilyn proceeds in injecting the serum into their body.

She carefully removes the towel and drops it on the floor before gently parting their fur and injecting the serum into their body. It takes a minute for the serum to kick in. Like always, the serum decides that it’s best if the animal it’s injected into is knocked out before it starts doing it’s job. The hybrid fights against the sleep that came in slowly, but five minutes later, they lost that fight.

With a warm smile stretching her lips, Leilyn watches as the hybrid cutely sleeps. She checks their body, making sure that the serum is doing its work. She watches as the broken leg snaps back in place, and the injuries on their body starts knitting together and the fur growing back. Once she’s sure that they’re fully healed, she stands up. She silently grabs one of her large bed pillows, and walks over to her balcony. She sets the pillow down before the open doors, before she walks back to her bed. She gently carries the hybrid and walks back to the pillow and sets them on the soft pillow. When they grumble at being moved so much, Leilyn gently pets them, making them exhale a pleased purr.

With a smile still on her lips, Leilyn silently walks away. She grabs the towel and drops it with the bloody gown. She then walks into the bathroom and proceeds in washing the dried and caked blood off her legs in the shower. Once done, she walks into her closest to grab a red low riding jorts and a loose black tank top. She walks over to the mirror to look at her appearance, braiding her hair in the process and pinning it up in a bun with a metal senbon. With a last look aimed at the sleeping hybrid, she goes downstairs and heads for her car.

Leilyn puts all the groceries away, arranging them into their rightful places. After that, she parks her car in the garage, giving way for the truck that will be there in a few minutes time. While she’s doing all this, Ro’s cleaning the blood trail made by Leilyn’s gown. Once that is done, she goes back up, into one of the rooms and starts arranging it for the baby stuffs.

Leilyn’s house, which is a futuristic modern Engawa building with one way glass windows; is made up of six spacious bedrooms. Four upstairs bedroom and two downstairs bedroom, one of the downstairs room located near her lab, in case she works herself to unconsciousness and couldn’t make it back upstairs. Six bathrooms – four en-suites upstairs, another downstairs between her lab and the bedroom downstairs and the last in the gym -; a large living room; a large game room with a parlor in it; a kitchen/dining room with a huge fridge; a room where she stores her raw food, along with a freezer in it; her study room; her lab; her gym room; and Zoranne’s and Ro’s room. All in house, the house is large, which kinda intensifies Leilyn’s loneness.

The dark-red-copper haired woman choses the room beside the master bedroom, the one with the other en suite bathroom – the one Zack slept in – and starts making way for baby stuffs. Seeing as it’s already cleaned and arranged – she cleaned up the house a day after Shinji and the boys left and every weekends, she dusts the unoccupied room (not much dust, seeing as Zoranne opened the windows to air out the rooms) -, there wasn’t much to do in the spacious bedroom.

In no time, she has arranged the room into one fitting for a nursery. The only thing that she couldn’t remove is the huge bed. Right now, she wishes that she had gotten a shrinking bed. Oh well, she might spend time with the baby here.

Three minutes found her in the kitchen/dining room, leaning on the countertop and sipping a bottle of apple-vanilla juice with an eatable vanilla flavored straw.

“Ms. Leilyn. A truck is here.” Zoranne speaks up. “They said that there’re from Madam Rohaen’s Baby Store.”

“Scan them.”

A moment later, the A.I replies. “They are clean. I ran their faces in the database. No criminal results or afflitrations to any government or the Underground.”

“Good. Let them in. And activate the soundproof sequence in my room. We don’t wanna wake up our guest now, do we?”

The woman stands up and walks out, looking at the gate. Zoranne opens said gate and the truck slowly makes its way to her. With narrowed eyes and mouth still casually sipping her juice, Leilyn watches as four people step down from the truck. Her eyes roamed their body, finding weak points and places to stab with her senbon in case they try anything fishy.

It takes an hour for them to move her purchases upstairs, and for their help, Leilyn gives them each a bundle of UPCs, having one hundred notes and rounding up to a thousand each, as tips. The two women hug her tightly, thanks spilling from their lips. The two men thank her with a wide grin, eyes lit in happiness.

If she has an unlimited balance in her account, why not spend it and ensure that it doesn’t go to waste?

Well, that’s what Leilyn says to deny that she’s caring.

She watches as the truck drive out with a loud honk before heading back upstairs. For the rest of the day, Leilyn arranges the room – now a nursery – and places everything in order. Well, almost everything. The things that needs assembling are kept aside for the next day. Or another.

When Leilyn’s done, it was eight o’ clock in the evening. She goes back into her room and sees that the hybrid is now awake. With a smile, she takes the drowsy cat hybrid downstairs and proceeds in feeding them.

As she doesn’t know what their substance is, she tries every food in her home, and the one they like, such as raw and cooked meat and fish, along with apples, she mentally marks them. As they eat, she also eats. Once they’re filled to the brim – her pregnancy sure makes her hungry as fuck -, she gently picks up the hybrid, carefully, so as not to disturb their digestion. The two sit on the couch, walking a movie on a large, high quality Holo-Screen. Well, more like Leilyn’s watching the movie and the hybrid looking at her. Once in a while, she’ll look down at them with a smile and give them a gentle pat before her eyes go back to her movie.

By eleven, they’re both clearly exhausted. With a command to Zoranne, the movie stops and the screen disappears. Leilyn gently picks up the hybrid, cradling them in her arms.

As she goes back upstairs with her new companion, Zoranne locks everywhere and switches off the downstairs light – as usual. Once in her bedroom, she sets the hybrid on their pillow. She walks into her closet and grabs a scarf and covers them. With the hybrid still in mind, she closes the balcony doors, leaving it a little bit open in case they decided to leave.

Leilyn removes her clothes and underwear under the watchful eyes of the hybrid. She drops them on the ground, promising to pick them up tomorrow. She picks up a sleeping gown from her closet – Zoranne closing said closest -, wears it before tucking herself in bed. She sends one last smile at the still watching hybrid, whose eyes are droopy, before exhaustion and pregnancy hormones takes her out.