OffSpring | ✎

Chapter LXIV

Chapter Sixty-Four | Reality
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K A I T L Y N

The forsaken entity known as reality captures me within its clutches, brutally pulling me from the throes of slumber and to the tresses of my mind; where I awake to the sound of Cassius and Adelia's cries. I'm momentarily dazed, the essence of sleep lingering on the lids of my eyes as I stare up at the ceiling with blurred vision — darkness cloaking the room.

Quickly, my vision clears as I roll from my side to sit up, my hair slipping over my shoulder like silk, the distinct continuing cries of my children draw my attention to their crib, sleep long forgotten.

Pulling back the duvet that felt like puff clouds between my fingers, I slip out the bed and was instantly met with a small chill that lingered in the atmosphere, tickling at my bare skin as I moved soundlessly toward the crib where the tiny bundles lied. The moon's glow emitted a sort of halo effect as I placed my hands along the crib's edge. Cassius' cheeks were tainted red, the pressure of his cries swelling his face lightly with blood, his sister whimpering slightly by his side; leftover tears create a light sheen off wetness on her cheek.

Knowing what they craved, I settled for Adelia, scoping his weight into my arms swiftly. Briefly, I mulled over his features, his lashes clumped together with tears as he blinked innocently at me; my heart soaring.

"Hi, baby," I whisper, lifting the cotton fabric of the two-piece nightgown, no undergarment holding my breasts hostage.

Adjusting her accordingly, Adelia latches onto my nipple hungrily, sucking it as if she had been starved: her wide eyes staring without focus as she lets herself be submerged in the waves of flavor. As she drinks himself full, I sweep locks of her from sticking to her brows to behind her hair before I turn my gaze to Cassius as he waits his turn — to keep him from crying, I preoccupy him with running my fingertips up and down his stomach as he lies on his back, small gurgles of laughter bursting from him as the air is filled with his contagious energy.

In the end, I exhaust him from his fest of giggles and let my mind wander, Adelia still attached to my breast.

The events before leading up into the now come to the foremind, swirling, and inhabiting my thought process, the images rising an alliance with my feelings. I properly process the information, an uneasy feeling growing within my stomach, part of me still couldn't fathom the history behind this world and all that was kept secret about the originality of humans.

Though I no longer functioned like a human being, I was still a bit uneased and shellshocked about the newfound knowledge and stuck in the void of accepting it.

Adelia's audible retraction from my nipple brings me from the woven strings of my thoughts that knotted with each passing second, looking down at her, I find her a bit milk-drunk; his lips plumped red from his sucking and eyes lowering with the weight of sleep upon them. The corner of my lips tugs into a smile, wiping away drops of breast milk, and swing him over my shoulder, patting his back. She effortlessly burps, one loud and the other a wet sound, soon after I lay him back into the crib.

Cassius's keen eyes follow my movements, my hand lulling his sibling to sleep, eager, and ready to eat. With gentle hands, I raise him into my arms, his face always catching me off guard at how much he resembled Delano: those blue as striking and intense as his father's.

'Our baby. . .'

I let the thought drift into my mind, the following sensation of my heart blossoming with a planted bud of emotion that contained the growth of unspoken words. Cassius's little fangs puncture my nipple as he greedily drinks both blood and milk, pulling me further into the duties of motherhood.