Carlisia opened the door, not surprised it was unlocked.
Her mother was a careless woman.
“Mom, I’m home.” Carlisia said feeling nauseous, making sure her voice went throughout the house but to her surprise she didn’t get a response.
“Mom?” She asked yet again, waiting for an answer but she got none.
Her head hurt as she dumped her wet bag beside the stairs and went to look for her mother. No later she found the note her mother had left on the fridge, explaining she had went to a ladies party of sort.
Placing the note on the counter Carlisia grabs her bag and begins to make her way to her room.
She sneezed, making her groan. She was sick. Great. Just great.
She could already feel her nose clogging up and her throat getting sore.
Slouching her way, she made it to her room, placing the bag beside her bed side table, while making her way to the closet.
Grabbing a pair of sweats and a full sleeve shirt which she had stolen so kindly from Zane, she made her way to the bathroom, sneezing again.
After half an hour, she came out dressed in some comfortable dry clothes but her head still clouded with throbbing pain.
She places a hand on her head and makes her way to her wet bag.
She had to make sure her supplies were okay.
She grabbed it and dumped its contents on her bed, which to her luck were dry. Sneezing again she organizes her books placing them on the side table. She was about to lie down when a crumpled piece of paper caught her attention.
With curiosity etched on her face she looks at the paper only to find it to be her schedule, reviving her memories of this morning and how everyone addressed the supervisor Gabriel Kane as Alpha.
Putting her sickness she grabs her laptop along with a box of tissue papers (for her cold), settling on the bed with them.
‘Alpha’, she cautiously types the word in the search box before pressing enter.
Like any other person the first link she clicked was of course,
Alpha- Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
As soon as the page opened she began to read mindlessly, wiping her nose every once in a while with the tissue paper, throwing it in the dustbin.
First came the use of the word in Greek methodology, Math and science and then History and symbolism.
None of which made sense to her, of course.
But then a single line caught her attention,
‘The term "alpha" has been used to denote position in social hierarchy, examples being "alpha males" or pack leaders.’
This particular line made no sense to her still, but the word ‘alpha male’ stood out like a red sign.
She clicked at the link to the word, going to the page.
She could feel adrenaline coursing through her, maybe finally she was getting somewhere. Maybe she might finally get an answer.
In social animals, the alpha is the individual in the community with the highest rank.
Carlisia’s eyes furrowed.
It was a rank used for animals. Guess she wasn’t getting close after all but then again this very line did manage to explain a lot.
A rough character sketch of Gabriel began to draw in her mind.
He was commanding, had an authoritative aura, every one respected him, looked up to him, and feared him.
These traits fit him well as an Alpha but he wasn’t an animal. Then why would he be called that?
She knew for a fact that people won’t start calling him that out of the blue, because from the looks of it, they might not live to see another day if they did.
This just brought her back to the place where she started.
Shaking her head she continued to read on.
These ranks are more likely to be specified among wolf packs where the entire pack depends upon the Alpha and the second in command Beta.
Beta animals often act as second-in-command to the reigning alpha or alphas and will act as new alpha animals if an alpha dies or is otherwise no longer considered an alpha
Omega animals are subordinate to all others in the community, and are expected by others in the group to remain submissive to everyone. Omega animals may also be used as communal scapegoats or outlets for frustration, or given the lowest priority.
She continues to read until she finally stops.
This was stupid. There weren’t any answers in this. She wasn’t going to get any answers from this.
None of these peoples were wolfs! So why were they addressing each other as these ranks.
It didn’t make any sense! These words were familiar to her and not at the same time.
There was’nt any logical explanation in this. But something at the back of her mind nipped, that they weren’t ordinary people at the same time, which she ignored as a side effect of the sickness.
All so suddenly she began to realize how tired she was as the aching came back. She looked at the time and saw that she had spent two and a half hours. Her eyes then land on the dustbin which was filled with tissue papers.
She placed the laptop on her night stand, snuggling into the covers, her nose clogged up, making an uncomfortable sensation.
Elijah and Ruben should be home any time soon now, but that didn’t matter as her eyes began to droop close, with all this new information in her mind.
With that Carlisia fell into a deep slumber
Everything was black and white as if she was in movie. She looked at her surroundings and she noticed she in her mother’s home, but then why was everything monochrome?
She heard voices from somewhere downstairs. She follows them out of her room and down the stairs into the black white living room where a girl stood. She was exactly like her. Same hair, same everything.
She was her.
But how could that be possible?
She goes to her other body and touches her. But to her surprise her hand goes right through her. She looked at the herself and saw that her reflection was wearing the same white and blue dress she had woke up in bloodied and bruised on her second day at this place.
“Mom?” She said going to her mother but she didn’t reply. It was like she was a ghost.
Was she dead?
She didn’t remember dying for that matter. Finally deciding she wasn’t she looked at the scene in front of her,
“Alpha- I mean Mr. Kane this is my daughter Carlisia” her mother says introducing her reflection to the scary supervisor, whose name was Gabriel as he looks at her with curiosity walking towards her one of his hands deep in his pockets.
“Gabriel.” The guy says extending his hands and Carlisia watches as her reflection look down at it, than behind him to her mother who just nodded.
“Carlisia.” Her reflection says and places her hand in his and that’s when he throws his head back a bit and takes in a deep breath while Carlisia looked at him confused.
She watched him and quickly rushed to get her reflections wrist free but her hand passed right through them.
His hand travelled to her reflection wrist and grabbed it in a painfully, making her hiss with pain.
“Ben whats happening!” she hears her mother scream at a distance but she was too busy trying to get her reflection out of his grip.
That’s when Gabriel opened his eyes and Carlisia’s as well as her reflections eyes widen.
They were yellow.
“MATE!” He growled as he stared at everyone with his yellow eyes and his eyes finally landed on Carlisia reflection who was beyond shocked at his sudden change of eye color.
“Please let me go.” Carlisia’s reflection says as she tries to get her hand free with her other hand and he grabs her other hand in an even tighter grip, causing her to take a sharp intake of breath from the stinging pain, looking at the man in front of her.
“Please help me!” She says sobbing while looking at them but all her mother did was looked down at the ground, shamed . Carlisia just stared helplessly, tears falling down her cheeks.
She was witnessing herself getting assaulted and no one could do anything about it. She couldn’t do anything about it.
That’s when Ruben gets up not having the nerve to watch his Alpha do this to his step sister.
“Gabriel, let her go your hurting her.” He says walking to him but Gabriel growls pushing Carlisia’s reflection into his chest.
He snarls at her step brother who was finally taking a stand to her.
“Gabriel she is a human, you’re hurting her.” He says making his way towards them.
But that was it. Carlisia had heard it loud and clear.
Weren’t they all human?
She looked at Gabriel’s yellow eyes. That was inhuman. You cant just change eye color and growl like animals.
If they were’nt humans then what were they?
She looked back at them just in time to see Ruben taking his Alpha’s distraction darting towards him but Gabriel looks at him in time and pushes the her reflection away from him and tackles Ruben to the ground, oblivious that he had pushed her with so much force that she hit her head with wall in front of her, busting it open and falling on the ground unconscious like a ragged doll.
Carlisia looked at her reflection that was bleeding on the ground. The dress soaking up in her blood.
She stared at the patches of blood on her dress. They seemed familiar.
The next thing she knows her reflection is being carried by Gabriel into her room. She follows them, curiously eyeing them as he placed her reflection on her bed, tucking her in.
What was he doing?
Gabriel kissed her reflections forehead then suddenly whipped his head in her direction, his yellow eyes piercing through her soul.
Carlisia woke up with a jolt, to feel something cold on her forehead.
“Hey, everything is okay.”She hears someone say comfortingly before placing a hand on her forehead pushing her down on her bed.
Carlisia was breathing heavily from her mouth and finally looked at her surroundings to find her mum placing wet towels on her forehead.
“What happened?” She asked her mother. Her voice came out groggy and her throat was dry as if she had been crying.
“I don’t know. The boys told me you got wet in the rain and Alpha- I mean Mr. Kane gave you ride home. I came home from the party and found you with a red nose and sweating. It was like you were having a bad dream. I tried to wake you up but you didn’t responded. You were even crying and your body temperature was sky high. I was so worried I even called Jim, asking if this was normal.” Her mother says rather frantically.
Her cheeks felt sticky from the tears as she looked at her mother.
“You told Uncle Jim?” She asks her mother accusingly and she nods.
Carlisia closes her eyes and groans. He must be worried sick. She tries to get up but her mother pushes her down again. Placing her hand over her forehead, shaking her head disapprovingly.
“I guess you’re not used to this kind of weather.” Her mother says and Carlisia finally grabs her phone from the night stand and just nods.
“Yeah.” Her mother is about to place another wet towel on her forehead and Carlisia grabs her hand.
“That’s enough. Can you make me some tea or something? My throat hurts.” She says and her mother quickly nods.
“Of course.” Her mother nods quickly leaving the room and Carlisia’s mind drifts back to the dream or whatever it was.
It seemed so familiar, like this had happened before. As if it wasn’t a dream. But a memory.
But that would mean….
Without a second thought, Carlisia got up and made her way to her closet, ignoring her headache and dizzying head. She takes out the dirty blood stained dress, examining it and to her horror,
The blood stains were identical to that in her dream.
