What's real and what's fake

Part two

"Valeria, Valeria wake up, darling, Valeria!"

"What!" I barked, not caring that my tone was probably disrespectful.

"You will pick up that spoon right now and put it in the sink." My mom said, her eyes flaring on the edge of anger.

"But I don't want to, it's too far and I'm too sleepy."

"Valeria, before I count up to three if you haven't stand up I'll —"

"Look this way child." I looked to my left and flinched, another person who looked exactly like my mother said. I looked back at my mom then back at the intruder and frowned.

Why were they two?

The intruder laughed, "that's exactly the question you should be asking child, humans," she sighed, "such gullible creatures, choosing to believe what they think should be right and not what is right."

"Look beyond your beliefs child, look beyond what you think you see and see what you should have really seen." A third mum appeared. Waving her hand at the room.

The room was rough and shaggy looking, like mum didn't have time to clean up, it looked like my cabin, right before I had started living in it.

I was eight years old, and somehow I was aware that this was a dream, a memory of some kind.

"Do you remember this day?" Mum one, said right before she waved her hand and the room changed.

Now we were standing in the middle of a hall, the same hall where my life had changed, but this scene was different, I was being dragged into the middle of the circle by the same man I called my father, the same face that I remembered has shown me love had cried for me. Was the same one looking at me in pure disgust while I cried for him to let me go.

My mum was behind me crying and thrashing about trying to fight off the men who held onto her.

My grandmother, who I thought had cried for me, was looking at my mother with twisted satisfaction, like she deserved what she was going through.

"I am Alexander Kane Hortensius, and you will make this child my weapon."

"What creature, do you wish her to be mighty King?"

The witch asked.

"A Hikrata, I want her to be made one, she will be my prized possession, the first Hikrata in six hundred years."

The witch paled, "but my king, that would require all their life source."

"Then make it so, they are here to serve me." He said with a snarl.

Grandmother wasn't looking satisfied anymore, instead she looked scared as she gazed at him.

He looked back at my mother, "my daughter has granted me a gift, she has given birth to twins, the first in the family for centuries, she has granted me one of them to be made my weapon, I will not let this opportunity go to waste."

"But you already made her first son a Sehirah." The which sputtered.

"—And knox took him away from me, along with her first daughter, I won't let this opportunity go to waste, she married an Hortensius, whose genes were dormant even when I forbid her, but at least, his genes were good for something." The tone he ended with gave that of finality so the witch didn't ask anymore questions as she began her mantra while I cried as the sun burned into me.

***

The scene changed and we were back in the cabin and still, the three women posing as my mom stood facing me.

"Did you know I was a dream walker apart from being a snow leopard, Valeria?" Mum three said.

Mum one laughed, "of course you couldn't have, I never told anyone cause I knew it was risky if it ever got out, but my father found out, and that made me his favorite child, I disobeyed him, tempted his control, defiled him, and yet, he never could let me go."

Mum two waved her hand and the room changed again. This time I was in the car, waiting for my mum to come out of the supermarket so we could continue running, because somehow, we'd escaped Alexander's clutches. I came out of the car when I became restless.

My mum was running out of the supermarket, heading for me when it happened, she was running one moment and next she hand disappeared, turning into a glittery dust and the man who I called my father appeared and did something that sucked the dust into his hnd and then looked straight at me and I ran,

But he had somehow caught up to me, appearing at my front and scaring the shit out of me.

He had smiled at my shriek of fear and he had grinned, a feral grin that sent shivers into my bones and he had told me.

"Let's go do something about your memory dear Valeria, we don't want you remembering me as the enemy when I come for you, now, would we"

*****

I jerked awake, and when my eyes came into focus, I snarled at the faces I saw. They moved back on instinct giving me a wide berth apart from Jerome who stood still staring at me in worry.

I could feel my body trembling with the need to kill something, the need to tear something apart, the need to feel pain to remind me I was still alive, still who I was, I needed to fight.

"I want to kill someone Jerome," I breathed out, not caring for one single moment despite the fact that they all gasped in surprise, "do me a favor Alpha Jerome, find me someone to kill."