5. Humanoids

Thunk!!!

Deepti turned in the direction of the sound to check what that was about, only to see one of the oldest glass jars rolling on the floor.

"Eh? How is that even possible? Madam will not like this." She said as she rushed to pick it up, silently praying that this would not get her into any trouble with her boss, whom she's been working for for decades now.

*

'No. No. No!!!' The middle-aged woman, Laila Varmer, screamed in her dream before finally jolting out of her afternoon nap with a start.

She was panting hard as beads of sweat formed on her forehead.

"What was that about?" Laila asked out loud as she quickly got out of the sofa bed and rushed to her collection room in apprehension.

She found her old servant, Deepti, crouched down and was about to pick something off the floor.

"Don't touch that! Move away from there." Laila screamed once she realised that it was the very same jar that she had just dreamt about, startling her servant for a bit.

"Yes, ma." Deepti said with an apologetic bow.

Laila speedwalked to where the jar was and picked it up with both hands.

"Sorry, ma. I was cleaning the other side when I heard it fall. I don't know how it fell on its own."

"Leave! Now!"

Deepti didn't need to be told twice.

"What is happening? How is that even possible?"

She rubbed her thumb on it and said with a wicked smile. "What are you up to, little Kumar? Are you trying to defy me, or do you want to meet the same fate as your brothers then? Hahaha... Don't rush it, my dear. For your time is almost up."

Laila felt uneasy as she stared at the thirty-year-old sealed jar, which was still intact with no cracks.

"Lalita, don't think that I'll allow you to win this time around. Never! Your child shall never escape the destiny that I've set for him." Laila said as she left with the jar to her workroom to confirm something.

*******************************

It was already nighttime when Renjith also woke up.

'What happened?' That was the first thought that came into his head.

"Why am I naked...oh." He stopped mid-sentence as the events from a few hours ago played in his mind. "Oh mine, what have I done? How is that even possible?" Renjith held his head in between his palms in deep thoughts and guilt.

"Hmm." He sighed and quickly got up when it dawned on him that he could've hurt his 'friend' or worse, caused harm to her. "Is Aiesha alright?"

"Where is she, even? We need to talk about this."

"Aiesha?" He said as he got off the bed and quickly put on his clothes before checking the washroom in search of her, but she wasn't there.

"Aiesha. Aiesha." The president kept calling his friend's name as he opened the doors of the other rooms in case she might be in one of them.

He searched the rooms for a while but did not find Aiesha anywhere.

Rrring! Rrring! Rrring!

He was about to ring the bell in the living room for one of the servants to ask them about Aiesha's whereabouts when his phone rang.

He checked, and it was from Anant, his personal secretary.

"What?"

"Sir, it's only fifteen minutes left for your flight to take off, so I was calling to remind you of that, please."

"Cancel it. And send a message to Dr. Jayaraman. Inform him that I am on my way to see him right now; he shouldn't leave his office yet." Renjith instructed and then cut the call.

He found a piece of paper and scribbled a note on it before leaving.

He then sent a text message to his closest cousin and friend, Ryan McDermott.

It read, "Can't make it today. Will be there by the morning instead. I have a meeting with my doctor. There's something that I need to discuss with him. It's good news. I think I found the one this time. Will tell you more about it later."

Renjith smiled as he placed his phone back into his pocket. Judging from how the room was when he woke up, he was sure that he didn't harm his friend.

'Maybe she's feeling embarrassed after what happened. I'll leave her be for now.' He thought to himself.

Bing!

A notification popped up, so he took his phone and checked. It was from a message from Ryan.

It reads. "Really? Dude, then that is great news! Let me know what Dr. Jayaraman says after your meeting. Ciao."

His driver, Kamal, was already waiting by the car.

"Sir, it's good that you're here. I wanted to even come and check on you. It's been six hours since your last drink. Would you want to have it here, or should we get home first?" He asked while holding the car door as the Alpha climbed into the backseat.

"Yeah... but..." Renjith then realised that, weirdly enough, he wasn't feeling as hungry and thirsty as he normally would by now. Nor is he feeling any pains. If anything, he seems to feel really good today.

"Never mind. I'm good. Just take me to the facility." He said, and Kamal did as told.

**********************

Mrs. Lalita has called her son's head doctor to come over in order to talk about his deteriorating health condition.

"Why is he not feeding, Dr. Jayaraman? I went through all the loops to get him these people. Why will he refuse them? What is wrong with him?" She vented out her frustration over her son's situation.

"Hmm. I really don't know." The doctor sighed.

"Stop with the 'hmm'and come up with something. I cannot have the chairman know about our son's condition. You know what's at stake."

The doctor turned to look at her with a solemn face, thus making Lalita more anxious.

"What is it, Jaya? Spit it out already!"

"Hmm." He sighed again before continuing. "I don't know if you're aware of this already, but all those that take care of him in the dungeon have all quit again. At this point, the only idea that I can think of is... um... never mind. I think that's a stupid idea."

"It's what, Jaya? I'm really desperate here, so you better be out with it now, or I'll have your tongue cut out of your mouth for wasting my time this instance!

"I... I was wondering if we should get the services of a humanoid robot?"

"How do you mean? What can a robot do? Will it help my son to finally be able to feed on people directly so his system will stop deteriorating? Hm? How? Tell me."

"No. But it can provide the services of those people who keep quitting, plus we can use it to provide him blood from the bank during those moments and see how that goes. At least this way, we will not have to fear about his secrets getting out. What do you think?"

"Hmmmm." Lalita nodded her head in deep thought while going through what she just heard.

"Okay. Let's try that and see how it goes from there."

"Okay, my Queen. I'll make a call to an old friend of mine who deals in that then."

"Sure. I pray that this works out so Laila will be put to shame. The chairman must never find out about any of this. Is that clear?"

"Definitely. I'll continue to keep your secret, Lalita." The doctor assured his long-time friend.

Beep. Beep.

Just then, Dr. Jayaraman received a text from Renjith's secretary about his boss wanting to meet with him ASAP at the main facility.

"Speak of the devil. Your son just sent me a text that we should meet."

"Alright. Try and convince them to get on board with the robot thingy."

"Yes, Lalita. I'll like to take my leave then." Dr. Jaya said and then left.

*****

"Ma'am, the Alpha just left. You missed him by only a few seconds." Bhumi informs her madam as soon as Aiesha returns.

"Did anything happen? How did he react after eating the food? Was he hyper? Did he destroy anything?" She asked while removing her shoes.

Bhumi shook her head. "I can't really tell, ma'am. Only he was here having his meals. He never rang the bell for any of us, so we remained in our posts. I only saw him leave with his driver a few minutes ago."

"Was he acting strange? Did he look very angry?" Aiesha asked again. Her eyes scanned the living room and the dining hall to see if anything was amiss.

Bhumi didn't understand why her boss was asking her all these weird questions, but she answered. "No ma'am. He looked the same as always. And I don't think that he was mad anyway."

"Alright. You can leave...wait, what is that? Bring it to me." Aiesha spotted the note left on the small table in the living room, in between the sofas.

"Here, ma'am."

She dismisses her servant and reads what the note said.

"I have to leave due to an emergency. Let's talk when I get back."

"Whew!" Aiesha exhaled in relief. "I guess the drug didn't work on him, which is why he was able to leave on his own quietly. Thank the universe!

I guess I'll have to try again next time, maybe double up the dosage, and make sure to be with him and not leave again like it had happened today.

Renjith will be mine, and so will the seat by his side as his queen. By hook or crook."