Mila's POV:
I had finished my last photoshoot up and was headed to pick my babies up from school. I was so excited to see them. I had a smile on my face the whole car ride there. The ride ended shortly; luckily, my studio wasn't far from the school. I got there about 10 minutes before they were supposed to be let out. About 5 minutes later, I started to see students filing out; they must have got out early. I soon spotted my kids, and they locked eyes with me. They both took off towards me with smiles on their faces. I matched their grin.
Alyx threw herself into my arms, and I hugged her tightly. Oh, I've missed them. I pulled away and looked at Aleksey, who gave me a smile and a nod. I got them in the car and started off down the road. I was about to ask them about their day when an emergency tone sounded over my car radio that was shut off. At this point, I knew that the message was only meant for supernaturals to hear. So I turned up the volume quickly.
"This is an urgent public announcement." Wait, that's Emma's voice. "A virus is spreading quickly throughout the supernatural community. It is highly contagious, spreads quickly, and is only targeting the supernatural community. It seems only to attack the supernatural gene." Her voice was so steady and articulate. Mine would be so shaky.
"I'm going to turn it over to Doctor Melissa Hein to go over symptoms and what you should do if you start presenting with them." I could hear soft footsteps in the background. Before I realized it, we had pulled into the driveway to the house. I sat there in the car, unbuckling my seatbelt and pushing my seat back so I could sit up forward comfortably.
"Momma, can we go inside?" I looked back at Aleksey to see him very uncomfortable.
"Of course. Here's the house key." I took it off my keychain and handed it to him. They got themselves out of their booster seats and made their way inside.
"Sorry for the long pause; I've just received new data that I will share with you at the end of the symptoms being listed. If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, I want you to immediately check yourself into the nearest supernatural hospital and get quarantined. From there, we will need to know everyone you have been in contact with so we can test them for the virus. Symptoms are as follows: Fever, chills, coughing up blood, vomiting, the white part of your eyes are yellow, extreme fatigue, fainting, last but not least you will see your veins on your body turn black, and it will spread up your body towards your heart. These are the only symptoms we have documented so far. Now the news I have just been informed of, we jumped from a little over 80,000 confirmed to a little over 120,000 confirmed cases in the matter of a few hours." Then, I heard some more footsteps.
"Are there any questions at this time?" I heard Emma's voice again.
"Is there a cure? Antibiotics? Anything?" I heard a long sigh.
"No, not at this time. However, rest assured we have the best scientists and doctors around the world working around the clock to find something to stop this virus." I heard a ton of questions being sounded off at once.
"This will be the last one. You, there. Go ahead." The crowd quieted down quickly.
"What's the current mortality rate?" I heard some shuffling.
"Right now..." It was the doctor again. There was a long pause. Too long. "Right now, the mortality rate is 100 percent." I heard what had to be a hoard of reporters uproar and shout out questions. I could hear cameras flashing. The car radio turned back off. I gulped in fear and looked towards the house. I almost wanted to take the children out of public school and just homeschool them for now, at least until they know how to increase the survival rate.
I looked at myself in the rearview mirror and gave myself a mental pep talk. Once I felt my emotions were in check, I got out of the car and headed inside. Once inside, I saw the kids at the table working on what looked like some homework.
"You already have homework?" I walked over to them.
"I wouldn't consider it homework. They're very simple papers, just asking about us, our families, and hobbies. We get to present tomorrow in class. Then this paper is where we draw our favorite moment." I hummed.
"I see. At least it's easy and sounds like some fun. I'm going to start dinner now. Once you both are done with your homework, head up and get ready for dinner." They said okay and got back to their assignments.
I was in the middle of cooking when I heard the front door open. Then, I heard footsteps grow closer to the kitchen. Each one sounded heavy, and soon I felt it hit me like a ton of bricks. Emma was breaking at the seams. Luckily the kids were upstairs; I know they would be very concerned.
"Oh, baby." I closed the distance between us and engulfed her in a hug. She snuggled her face deeper into the crook of my neck and took a deep breathtaking in my scent. I could feel her relax but only a little bit.
"She's only 8." I pulled back a little and saw the tears in her eyes. I could feel my brows furrowing, showing my confusion.
"A little girl. She has the virus. She's only 8." Her voice was wavering. She collapsed back into me, hugging me tightly.
"The things she was feeling. Her thoughts. It kills me. I feel like I was crumpled up and then ripped to shreds." I rubbed her lower back and kissed the side of her head.
"I know that must have been hard. I'm so sorry, love. Go ahead upstairs and get cleaned up. Dinner is almost ready. We'll talk more about this later." She nodded weakly and walked her way to the stairs. Her shoulders were slumped. Rarely have I ever seen her this distressed. Actually, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen her this distressed.
Everyone had filed in by the time I platted the food and set them on the table in our spots. Looking at Emma, I could see past her facade, but she was still very convincing. We all ate and talked about our days. The kids were really the only ones talking. They had a great day at school. I'm glad their day went well. I looked over at Emma and noticed she hadn't touched much of her food. I get it, it's bland to us, but we still always eat as a family. I grabbed her hand under the table and gave her the heartbeat squeeze. She looked at me with a small smile and did it back. She then mouthed that she loved me too.
Soon the kids were tucked in and fell asleep pretty much as soon as their heads hit their pillows. Emma and I made our way to our room. She immediately started to undress and looked back at me. I followed her lead and stripped down myself. I followed her into the bathroom and got in the shower with her. We just stared at one another, not saying anything, then out of nowhere, I saw the first tear fall from her right eye. Soon many, many more fell, and she collapsed onto me, finally breaking down completely. I just rubbed her back and held her tight. She needed to get this all out, and I know it has been eating her up inside all day. She's had to stay strong all day.
Do you remember what it felt like to be young? To have your whole life ahead of you? You could be anyone, anything? The sky was the limit. Daydreams could become a reality one day. I laid there looking up at the ceiling, still processing everything Emma had told me about the little girl. All of her dreams... aspirations... will never have a chance to play out and possibly come true. She'll never get to experience meeting her soulmate or go to a school dance. She'll never get to experience the world. She's accepted her fate, and that's what keeps swirling around my head the most. An 8-year-old, who has barely existed, has accepted that she'll die. That fucks me up inside, and Emma has had to repress her emotions all day.
I looked over at her and saw her sleeping soundly. I took in every detail of her face, like I have a million times before, and will continue to do it for the rest of my life. She finally looked peaceful for the first time since she's got home. I wish I could go back in time to when our problems were minuscule to what they are now. I sighed out. I don't know what I'd ever do without her, die, I presume... No. I could never let myself waste away like, not since having our children.
I turned back, overlooking back up to the ceiling. I needed to be strong for my family. I needed to be the backbone. I wonder how we are going to explain this to the kids. A part of me doesn't want to mention it to them just to keep them from being fearful, but then again, they need to know to watch out for any kids that are presenting symptoms. I'll talk to Emma about it tomorrow. I finally closed my eyes, trying to will myself to sleep.
I sat up with a quiet frustrated groan. Well, I'm not sleeping. I got out of the bed as softly and quietly as I could to not disturb Emma. Once up, I mentally cheered at being successful in not waking. I threw on some pajama pants and made my way downstairs. I stopped by the kitchen to pour myself a glass of blood. I then made my way to my office. I took in the welcoming smell of a sweet scent and pages of books. My office was very relaxing and had two big windows that let in plenty of natural light. I took a sip of my drink and sighed in satisfaction. I sat my glass on my table, then made my way over to my coffee maker and started brewing some coffee. Not that coffee really provides us with much energy. I think it's just a placebo effect to me now. Just giving me the illusion that it was giving me more energy.
I took a seat at my desk finally. I chugged down the rest of my glass of blood and started sipping on my coffee. I was scrolling through the supernatural web and reading all the news articles on the virus. Most of them were doom and gloom, but honestly, they weren't wrong. One of them even said there's no hope in big, blood-red letters. Sheesh. I had to get away from these articles.
I decided to focus on my work. I was a professional photographer. I had my own studio in the city, and business was actually really good. I didn't know so many would love my work. Some of my photos had gone viral over the past few years. When I posted them, I never thought they would blow up overnight as they did. After that, my business grew exponentially. I'm looking over plans right now on building a bigger studio. Maybe get an assistant.
I continued working on all my current projects and even made notes of things I wanted to change for the construction of my new building. I even drew what I wanted it to look like. I'm not the best at drawing, but I'm decent. I'm nothing like Emma. She can draw so realistically. Every detail is immaculately accurate. So beautiful it could take your breath away. I sold some of her art at my studio from time to time. Her drawings and art were quite popular too.
I started to notice that the sun had started to make its presence known. Its light peaking in the window. I looked down at my watch and sighed. 5 in the morning already. I slid my hands through my hair. I stood up and made my way upstairs, and got ready for the day. I looked at myself in the mirror and gave myself a pep talk.
"You've got this, Mila. Now go out there and get yourself an Oscar." I smoothed out my shirt and any flyaways I found and made my way downstairs.
Emma and the kids would be up and down here soon. I'm sure with how good the kids' first day went, they'll be up even earlier due to excitement. I think today I'm going to make my famous breakfast burritos. I wanted to have something I could actually have hot sauce with. That is literally the only thing we can taste, and it tastes amazing.
I felt the energy in the house change a few minutes later and smiled. The kids are up. I heard footsteps from upstairs and rolled my eyes in amusement. They really need to stop running in the house. I could hear the footsteps die off as they reached the door to Emma's and my room. I soon felt Emma awake and chuckled to myself. The burritos were done and plated by the time the rest of my little family made their way into the kitchen.
"Breakfast burritos? Sweet." Aleksey voiced, giving Alyx a high five. I analyzed him a bit more. He's really not acting like himself. He rarely lets anyone touch him. I found that Emma was looking at him too, then looked at me shocked. I raised my eyebrow, signaling we could discuss it later.
"How did you all sleep?" I looked at everyone devouring their food. Emma had basically the whole bottle of hot sauce on her burrito. All of them had mouths full. Their cheeks protruding from the amount of food had me giggling. Instead of answering aloud, I got a thumbs up from the twins and a so-so movement from Emma's hand.
I looked at my watch and saw it was close to the time for us to leave. I looked over to Emma and wished I could just spend the day with her. She must have felt my gaze because she soon met mine.
"I know, love. Me too." I heard her voice ring throughout my head. I let out a sigh and took a big gulp of my coffee, finishing it off. I know it may sound weird, but I put hot sauce in my coffee for flavor. It May sound disgusting, but it was absolutely delicious.
We made our way out of the cars. Em and I shared a kiss as usual and then went about our daily routine. Today felt different, though; as we drove in different directions, I actually started to feel further and further away from her. Usually, no matter the distance, I can always feel her. She's blocking me out, and I don't understand why. I'm her soulmate. I'm the one person she can show all emotions to. I get it in a way, though... If I were in that much mental anguish, I wouldn't want her feeling it either. But, maybe, I'm just overthinking. She probably just shut herself off so she wouldn't feel anything when she went into work.