Xander POV
I had been chatty at work for some time now. I talked often, perhaps more often than I realized because I was getting more compliments like "What made you start talking so often?" or subtler ones such as "You look to be in a good mood recently." One time, a young lady working with us asked me what had happened during the time I had first begun working here till this moment. They all thought I had received good news that carried me for a long time but in reality, I was the saddest I had ever been in my entire life. I had not realized I talked more often until all the compliments came pouring in. But somehow it all made sense.
I was talking more often so I distracted myself from the pain I was feeling. My subconscious mind was trying desperately to find a new connection to forget the broken one o had with Methis. In the past few weeks, I had experienced pain that hit harder than hammer, pain that cut deeper than sword. It was more than a heartbreak. A heartbreak was not the kind of word used to describe something like this. Those words were to linen.
Methis had not come to work for a long time now but surprisingly today she came. I knew she was recovering from what had happened to her maybe even more had happened when she was away. Who could tell? Even though I was frustrated about the things I had learnt about her, it was still remorseful to think of what she must have been going through knowing a shameful secret was running loose. Who knew? Who didn't know? Who was whispering about it now? Who was silently judging? Who was believing? Who wasn't? It was very obvious that all these questions were flowing through her head just by the way she walked and looked around.
I and Methis did not talk throughout the time there. Although once or twice I could feel her state at the back of my neck and more than once I was sure that she intentionally created a situation where it was just me and her I left the moment I realized it. I did not need any more complexity to my already complex life.
When the day was over and we were required to leave, I went to sign out and so did Methis but very soon after I left for the exit through the parking lot, Methis followed me and blocked my path.
I looked around in the parking lot. We were all alone. Because we were given a late task, all our other co-workers had left.
"What?" I asked.
"I need to know something from you," she said.
"Oh wow. Tough luck because I don't think I have anything to tell you." I turned to walk away to she circled and blocked me again.
"You do, Xander." Her eyes were desperate.
"What is it do I have? What information do I owe you?" I asked her, getting pissed that she was not letting me go back home in peace.
"About my stepmother."
"Why would you be so interested in someone you hate all of a sudden?" I asked.
"She's not an enemy!"
"I heard different. She tried to warn you and your father, didn't she?"
"Warn us from what?" Methis tried to put a hand on my shoulder but retracted it. Wise choice. "I think she lied to you."
"So your asking is to prove that I was misled?" I asked.
"No, Xander. Please. Just tell me and I'll be on my way. No need to bother you anymore."
That was an enticing offer. "She lives in a slum, runs a whorehouse and a tiny drug parlour and goes by the name Pussy. That's all."
She blocked me again as I was about to pass. Her stare was doubtful of my words. "What? I need more details."
I sighed and let out the details she needed.
***
It was quite sometime since I last remembered the incident. I had fought some thugs in front of her house while I waited for her arrival. It took her forever to arrive and by then, the sun was already high above the street.
"Perhaps you should knock harder," she said to me when she arrived home.
I thought she was another person who came to rub me but it wasn't until I asked if she was the one they called Miss Pussy and she said yes did I know I was in the right place. But still, I was not so sure she was Methis sister.
"What are you here for?" She asked. "Substance or girls?"
I furrowed my brows a bit but I caught the meaning - drugs or prostitute. "None."
“So what are you here for?” she asked. Before I could answer, she waved me in. “Come on in.”
I came in and might have instantly regretted it. Her house had a damp feeling and a strong smell like that of drugs oozed through every corner of her home.
“So, what are you here for?” she asked again.
“Answers. I came in search of answers.”
She looked almost scared then regained her composure. “The girl who died last week Thursday did not work for me,” she blurted out.
“I did not come for a girl who died.”
“Then why did you come?”
“It’s about Methis.”
Her face turned white and her head lobbed forward. “What?”
“Is the name familiar to you?” I asked.
“And what connection do you yourself have with that name?”
I remembered stopping for a moment to think before answering. I wanted to say the right things. I wanted to be on her side for the sake of the conversation. I was going to play as if she was the good guy, the victim.
“I am friend to Methis. In the past months I and Methis had gotten very close. So close to the point of getting wed. But she always avoided some sort of questions, especially concerning her family. So I found out about her stepmother who seemed to me like she was cast out. And I am here to know why.”
Kathrine looked at me and smiled. “Wise boy to search for answers himself. Wiser that he was able to find me.” She took a seat and motioned me to sit too. “Those people are awful people.”
“How so? She seemed sweet, generous and faithful.”
At the sound of the word faithful I remember Kathrine spitting on the floor. “Faithful? You have odd notions on what faithfulness is.”
I tried to keep my cool as well as the tempo of the conversation went smoothly. I tried to resist the urge to ask why she said so in such manner. “Is there something I am unaware of?”
“There are a lot you are unaware of. I advice you leave now and don’t bother hearing. These sort of things destroyed men.”
“What is it? As far as it concerns Methis I will listen.”
“I warned you,” she said ominously.
“Tell me.”
“Your fiancé, my stepdaughter, Methis is already a mother.”
This was the biggest shock I had had in my entire life. It could not be true. Methis was a mother. It would be a shock normally if I was told that Methis was not a virgin but to tell me that she was not just not a virgin, but a mother as well. The name sounded too heavy to use when thinking of someone like Methis. This could not be. It was impossible.
My shock must have shown on my face because Methis stepmother looked at me shaking her head. “I warned you.”
“How did it happen? And who is the father?”
“The father is a man named Jamal.” My eyes bulged out and my throat failed me. I was incapable of speech. “You won’t believe who this man is.”
“A wolf,” I said automatically.
“So you have met him.”
“Methis assured me that he was an ex who was obsessed with her and nothing more.”
Kathrine laughed. “Methis. Always slippery, eh?”
“I can’t believe this.”
“You better. You see I warned her not to sell herself.”
“And what do you mean?”
Kathrine dropped her voice to a whisper. “You see Jamal is a pervy guy. He has had fantasies of delicate young human. Maybe girls in the wolf land were too thick down there or perhaps they bit too much when penetrated but when he came, he offered Methis and her father loads of money to have her come to his place and engage in a yearlong of fornication. A cross between human and wolf. Fornication beyond the use of the word ‘abomination.’”
“That explains the year she was absent.” I thought aloud.
“Exactly. He offered huge money and she could not help but accept the offer. So that was it. They had sex and a twin was the outcome.” Noticing the shock on my face she laughed even louder. “You thought it was one child when I said a twin. Her maiden part has already been stretched far beyond comprehension. Who knows how many more wolves took their turn?”
I needed to hear no more, I was flabbergasted and I left with my heart shattered into shards and with my head burning in anger.