Ch.3: Pregnancy Test

Yennifer

16 years prior

My parents and I lived in sunny California. It was a beautiful place, especially here on the beach. I was out of kindergarten for the summer, and we were staying at our beach house for a few weeks.

We'd had a picnic, built a sandcastle, and dad taught me how to surf. Mom walked up and down the beach looking for seashells and other little trinkets with me. And now, I was just running back and forth squealing my fun as the waves came washing up the shoreline while the sun started its descent towards the horizon.

It was during this time that I noticed two other children around my age just a little ways down the beach. They were playing quietly and noticed my stare. When they looked at me, I waved to them. Running over I introduced myself and asked if they wanted to play. The girl with the beautiful blond hair, hazel eyes and a kind smile said she would. The boy that was with her was a little older and taller. He had short, light blond hair with a silver hue to it. And those eyes were as stormy as a sea.

I don't know why, but I was pulled towards the boy with the stormy eyes. It felt like I had known him my whole life, even though that didn't make any sense. The three of us hit it off immediately and we played until the sun set that night. The boy was everything in that moment and I didn't understand why my heart broke when it was announced we had to go. I started crying and pleading to stay out just a little longer.

"Will you play with me tomorrow?" I asked the boy a bit tearfully. He had told me his name, but I couldn't remember.

"Yes," he replied brightly, pulling me into a hug. "Goodnight."

Satisfied, I followed my parents to our house. I had no idea the danger I unintentionally invited into my life by interacting with him and I wouldn't completely understand the correlation until I was an adult.

After getting cleaned up, we sat down at the table for dinner.

And that's when my very first vision hit me...

The doorbell rang right before several larger-than-life wolves crashed into the house and tore my whole world apart. My family's blood, and mine, stained this once beautiful home filled with love.

I came back to the present screaming and crying. My parents didn't understand why I was upset. My mother was kneeling before me, trying to help me calm down enough to speak. My father stood behind me, rubbing my shoulders gently. As I was about to find my voice, the doorbell rang.

Terror gripped my chest, and I started crying again, begging my father not to answer the door.

My mother and father looked at each other curiously before father shrugged and went to answer it.

He never made it out of the kitchen before the door was kicked in and wolves stormed the house. My father was their first victim. The first wolf latched onto his neck and bit it clean off his shoulders.

My mother's screams rent the air as she did her best to protect me from the savage wolves. She was torn limb from limb before they turned their devil eyes my way.

I cowered below the table, crying, covered in my parents’ blood.

One of the wolves struck, tearing deep gashes into my neck, somehow missing my carotid artery.

I laid sprawled out on the floor, bleeding out slowly as the wolves looked around one last time before slinking back into the darkness they came from. Once they left, I crawled over to where my mother's mangled body was and curled into what was left of her side. Praying this was all some kind of nightmare.

Sometime later, I swear I saw and heard the boy from earlier. The one with the stormy eyes.

He found me and his frightened gaze latched onto mine while his hands moved over my body looking for any other wounds.

My vision swam and the next thing I knew, I was being carried by the stormy-eyed boy. We seemed to be going very fast. Faster than was normal for a kid running and carrying another child.

I blacked out again and looked up into the bright hazel eyes of the blond girl I played with earlier. She and the stormy-eyed boy spoke animatedly. She left and came back moments later with an adult.

I was scared.

I wanted to know where my parents were.

I just wanted my mommy.

Hot tears stained my cheeks as fire lanced up and down my neck when the adult placed his hands over the wound.

What was happening!?

I tried to fight against the pain, but the boy held my wrists, so I couldn't.

What felt like hours later, he released me, and my hands automatically went to my throat and found the wound was healed. Which seemed odd. How could a wound heal so quickly? When I had skinned my knee, it had taken days for those small wounds to heal.

But why did I still feel lightheaded? Why was my vision still blurry around the edges? Why couldn't I move?

"She'll survive," the adult announced. "But she's lost a lot of blood. She needs a transfusion."

"You should take her back home." The girl told the boy seriously. "Then call the police."

"But what if your uncle finds out she survived?" the boy asked tersely, fear in his tone. "I can't lose her."

"Hmm..." The girl hummed before turning her gaze to the adult. "You will take her to a hospital far away from here," she ordered. Even as young and as out of it as I was, I could feel the power lacing her voice. "You will leave her there. The system will put her into an orphanage. She will be safe in the unknown. And you will forget about this ever happening once you drop her at the hospital."

"Yes," the adult automatically said, as if on autopilot, his eyes glazed over as if in a trance.

The stormy-eyed boy leaned over me, his teary gaze holding mine. "I will come for you." He promised, placing a silver pendant with a large sapphire in the center around my neck. He kissed me once on my forehead and then disappeared from my vision.

The adult picked me up and left. I huddled into his chest, wanting to feel warmth, but only felt cold.

Moments later, I was deposited in the middle of an emergency room.

The nurse sitting at the counter saw me alone, covered in blood, and screamed. Several nurses and doctors came running out, and I was taken back and assessed. I was given a transfusion. And that's when I finally fell into the blissful arms of sleep...

***

Present

I woke with a start, gasping for air.

It was rare when my dreams took me back to that terrible memory.

Or manifestation, as my therapist called it.

Though, no one could ever explain how I had gotten halfway across the United States only a handful of hours after my parents were killed.

It was a mystery even the authorities nor my therapist could explain away.

And the stormy-eyed boy I'd played with, the one who saved me? He was just a part of my imagination. Someone I had made up to save my sanity from the horrors I witnessed that night. At least that was how my therapist explained it.

I believed him too, until I came face to face with Nikolai with those same stormy eyes as the child in my manifestation.

It couldn't be a coincidence, right?

Ugh!

I hung my head in my hands, trying to will the pounding headache away.

As I sat up and swung my feet over the edge of my bed, my stomach rioted. I sprinted for the restroom and barely made it as I threw up. Weakly, I plopped down on my butt after the heaving stopped. My body shook from the exertion while I felt my forehead with my hand.

I didn't feel sick per-se. I was clammy. But the flu? No.

I hadn't drunk excessively since the night with Nikolai over a month ago…

My eyes popped open as realization dawned. We hadn't used protection.

Well... I was on birth control, but it was well known that wasn't one hundred percent effective.

Leaning my head back I started mentally counting the weeks and groaned when I realized I was two weeks late.

The pit of my stomach knotted.

This was just great!

Luckily, there was a pregnancy test tucked into my downstairs bathroom. About four months ago, Lucinda thought she was pregnant. She hadn't wanted to take the test alone and come over to my house. She used one of the two tests and left the other here for an emergency.

This was definitely an emergency, I mused.

After peeing on the stick, I set it to the side and opened up my phone for a distraction. I opened up my panty selling profile on a renowned and popular platform known for selling such intimate items. I'd learned about the business by means of one of my foster mothers and decided to get into the business shortly after turning eighteen. It had been a way to make a little extra money.

I tapped on the notifications, knowing my usual buyers would have reached out to me, asking for their next set of used undies. A few new buyers had also reached out with their own requests.

This gave me something to do. I quickly packed up the requested items, printed labels for them and placed them on my bedside table to ship out the next day. It was then my phone alarm beeped for the pregnancy test. Steeling myself, I peeked at the test and cursed when it came back positive.

A myriad of feelings and thoughts washed through me. I was happy, sad, upset. I had always wanted to be a mother, but not like this. I wasn't sure I was ready to take on this kind of responsibility without having a partner--

Partner!

Who was the baby's father!?

It could be Ron's, or Nikolai's.

While Ron and I had practiced safe sex, I knew it wasn't bullet proof. We had shared intimacy a few days prior to our break up.

And Nikolai... We hadn't used a condom.

Fudge!

Right as I was starting to tail-spin into a panic attack, my phone rang, startling me out of my hysteria.

"Hello?"

"Yen! Are you close to being ready?" Charlotte, my best friend from high school, asked. In the background, I heard my other friend, Lucinda, talking with her other girlfriends.

I groaned, remembering I was supposed to go out on the town with them for Lucinda's bachelorette party tonight. I looked at the clock and saw I had overslept and gotten distracted. We were supposed to do a bar crawl along Bourbon Street.

I internally groaned when I realized I wouldn't be able to participate in the drinking, and I would have to find some logical reason to give because I wasn't ready to divulge to anyone, I was pregnant yet.

"Yes. I'll be leaving in fifteen." I said, rushing out of the restroom and throwing open my wardrobe.

"See ya soon!"

Tossing my phone on the bed, I grabbed the long-sleeved black, lace bodysuit with the deep V-neck I had specifically bought for this occasion. I splurged a little on myself, wanting to buy something I normally wouldn't. Ripping off my sleep shirt, I stepped into the bodysuit and dark jeans, ignoring the size 16 glaring at me from the tag on the inside waistband.

After getting myself all situated, I took a look at myself in the body-length mirror tucked into the corner of my room. A vision of a gorgeous red-headed woman with emerald eyes stared back at me. She looked so beautiful.

It was hard to believe that was me.

Looking away, I searched for shoes. I opted for nice black flats since we would be walking a lot.

Scurrying into my small bathroom, I touched up my makeup, and put on Merlot-colored lipstick. Glancing towards my jewelry box, my gaze snagged on the pregnancy test, and I paused. This was Lucinda's night, I told myself. I wouldn't ruin it for her. This surprise could be announced later.

Not to mention, I hadn't even gone to the doctor yet. Before I uttered a word about the pregnancy to anyone, I needed to see my OBGYN.

Refocusing on my task, I looked back at my jewelry box and saw the pendant the stormy-eyed boy had given me. I don't know why I kept it, but some part of me just couldn't let it go. Normally, I didn't wear it, but tonight it was calling my name. Slipping it on, I took a look at the time. Knowing that was all the time I had, I grabbed the essentials, shoved them into my purse and went running out the door.