“No, son reales…” A mysterious woman’s voice called out.

“¡No son reales!” The mysterious woman’s voice called out louder.

“¡NO ERES REAL!” the mysterious voice shouted as Natalia shrieked, waking up being drenched in sweat. Hyperventilating, Natalia quickly minded her surroundings. She was in a modestly decorated room with bare essentials like a television and a desktop computer.

Calming herself down, Natalia remembered she was moved to a residential dwelling near the hospital after suffering another nervous breakdown. Realizing it was only another nightmare, she breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, she’s been having such elaborate overstimulating dreams ever since she came back to the Oleander Syndicate months ago.

Wearing the nightgown that was given to her by the hospital, which was soaked in her own sweat. She dared to reach between her legs. She was indeed soaking wet as her hand was sticky and wet. Naturally embarrassed by this, her face turned red for even enjoying reacting to such vivid memories.

Para pensar que soñaría con algo tan placentero... Natalia thought as she smirked. “I guess I’ll take a shower…” Natalia relents as she climbs out of bed.

Hours later, Natalia got herself cleaned up and dressed. She wanted to visit Ayeka at the hospital, but she was still too afraid to set foot in that place. Natalia was always fearful of hospitals, even when she was a child. That fear escalated five years ago. That is one of the reasons the hospital had to accommodate Natalia’s mental state by letting her rest at an apartment dwelling.

At least there was a coffee shop down the street, getting herself a raspberry latte and an onion bagel. Eating her onion bagel in her small kitchen, Natalia remembered the little girl she briefly met days ago.

She couldn’t help but laugh at her cuteness and curiosity. Suddenly, the doorbell rings as this gets Natalia’s attention. She was expecting a nurse to check up on her since she refused to set foot in that hospital due to her mania.

Natalia heads to the door and answers it, only to see the last person to check up on her.

“Kayla! What are you doing here?!” Natalia asked.

But instead of answering her, Kayla muscled her way into the apartment.

Not really happy with Kayla’s bullish nature, Natalia made the best of it, “After you…” Natalia mumbled.

Kayla walks around the room, admiring the accommodations, “Nice little suite you have here.” She teased.

“It’s not much…” Natalia blew off as she got to the bottom of the situation. “What are you doing here?”

Kayla faces Natalia with a cheeky smile, “What! It’s been a while since we’ve had a heart-to-heart.” She mocked.

Natalia scowled, “We never did…” she growled.

The rivalry between Natalia and Kayla was indeed toxic from the very beginning. Natalia always had preferential treatment and was pushed highly from everyone, including Adrian Eichner. Kayla always hated her for that, even now, since she had to work twice as hard just to get noticed.

Even with the dilapidated state of the Oleander Syndicate, they were a lot of internal feuds that haven’t been resolved to leave a lot of bitterness and regret.

Still, Kayla had her reasons why she even wanted to waste her breath on this overrated cunt, “I wanted to see how you were doing.”

“Bullshit…” Natalia uttered as she walked away from Kayla.

“Noel came to see me. She was even looking for you,” Kayla said with a smile.

This made Natalia stop and face Kayla, “Why?”

Kayla pulls out a couple of envelopes; one was letter-sized while the other was smaller. She tossed the little envelope on the table, “This is your cut, Natty, of the job we did. Noel told me to give it to you.”

Natalia's eyes widened as this was the first time Kayla showed any kind of kindness toward her, “Kayla, I don’t know what to say…”

“How about thank you?” Kayla suggested.

Natalia blushed in embarrassment as she looked away, “Th-thank you…” She stuttered.

“Yeah, I know it must have been hard,” Kayla teased. “This was a set-up. Noel had us dismantle a finished war machine.”

Natalia said nothing.

“I had a gut feeling about Noel and her shadiness. Tried peering into her mind, but that didn’t work,” Kayla explained.

One of Kayla’s mentality-based abilities is telepathy, having the skill to read the thoughts of, or to mentally communicate with others. Although, her talent is not truly foolproof since she can only read the minds of others that are mentally weaker than hers.

Natalia crossed her arms as she looked away, “what about the others?”

“They got their cut as well. Just don’t tell Adrian about this,” Kayla continued. “Now, about Noel. She was rather vague in her little lunch meeting that we all had days ago…”

“About the so-called mission?” Natalia guesses.

“About everything. Emperor of the Nether. Empress of the Nether, the so-called wife. And their creepy little daughter…” Kayla said.

Like your daughters are fucking normal…, Natalia thought.

“Did it seem odd to you that Noel didn’t even bother saying his real name? Or even yet, his wife’s name and his daughter’s?”

Natalia shrugs her shoulders, “beats me…”

“That is why I did some digging of my own. You see, I took the liberty of switching handkerchiefs with you that day. That little girl was slobbering over herself, and you used your own to wipe her mouth. I ended up using our new connections with Interpol to do a DNA test.”

This shocked Natalia as her wolf ears perked up, “What?”

“Um, yes, Natty! If she was going to be coy with us, I was going to find out for myself!” Kayla admitted, showing her the brown envelope. “I have already read the results and told Ayeka and Ryoko. They both told me to sit down with you and read over the results.”

“Really? Is that the only reason you saved me for last?” Natalia bellowed.

“Natty, I don’t have to read your mind to see you are suffering from multi-year postpartum psychosis,” Kayla indicated. “And for that, I am really sorry. But we need to know. I did a full mitochondrial DNA analysis on the handkerchief and found it… something.”

“As for what?” Natalia growing impatient.

“There are a lot of kemonomimi in urban areas like New York City. It is the procedure to run blood testing for all nonhumans, including kemonomimi. Every nonhuman that is born must have to, so it can be data collected.”

“More like a subtle and sophisticated way of tagging your animals,” Natalia contradicted.

To her dismay, Kayla continued, “it is only used to provide the best care for any kind of nonhuman living in industrial countries,” Kayla exhaustively defended as she continued, “anyway… the system struck a match.”

“Okay…” Natalia losing interest.

Kayla opens the envelope and reads the results, “The girl's name is Suerte Firas. Hybrid Kemonomimi, Syrian Jackal-Grey Wolf mix. Born on January 15, 2010. Born in Manhattan, New York, United States. Spanish, Serbian and Syrian descent. And we tracked down her parents.”

Natalia said nothing.

But, Kayla continued as she read her findings, “It turns out the man who owns that little mansion goes by the name of Bĕhēmōṯ Firas. Yet, the mother of the child is Aurora Rose Novak.” Kayla concluding her findings.

Natalia’s eyes widened as she faces Kayla, “oh my God! You think she still alive?”

“Noel did say his Majesty and his wife, so technically it has to be Novak,” Kayla stating the obvious. “I guess she did make a clean break after all…”

“Great… Does Adrian know about this?” Natalia wondered.

As this puts a smile on Kayla’s face, this worried Adrian’s prized pet, “no and I am not going to tell her either… She doesn’t need to know every single thing we do. Even the money Noel gave us. Besides, in a couple of weeks, she will be out of our lives anyway. And the way I see it, I’m glad.” Kayla said.

But Natalia couldn’t help but worry about the consequences, “she is going to find out, Kayla. That’s what she does! I don’t know why you do shit like this--!”

“And I don’t know why you came back in the first place! We were all better off! You should’ve stayed in that mansion with your little daughter, being his trophy wife!” Kayla accused as Natalia was taken aback by these words.

“I don’t know what you are--”

“Natalia, I don’t even have to read your mind or your emotions. But then again, I’m not naïve,” Kayla probes.

Natalia turned away with her head down, “what is your problem with me? You’ve always hated me…”

Kayla approaches her with a dead stare, “I don’t know who you are or what you are. I don’t know why you came back in the first place. Better yet, I don’t even know why you’re keeping up this façade at all. I am already convinced that you are not Natalia Silvestri. And if you are, becoming a double agent, so help you God…!”

Natalia’s face turned red out of anger, “I know who I am, Kayla! It’s not my fault that you always had this personal grudge against me! But I get it now… I understand you now more than ever, Kayla. You have always been jealous of me!” Natalia accused.

Kayla scoffed at the idea, “me, jealous of you?! Don’t kid yourself!”

“I’m sorry that Adrian chose me to be the leader after Locke got indicted instead of you. I am sorry that you feel that I’ve been given such preferential treatment. I’m sorry that you feel like you have been underappreciated and overwhelmed. But I’m so sick and tired of apologizing for things I did not do…” Natalia declared as she walked away from Kayla.

“Oh, now you’re sorry?! What about things that you--?!”

“I am not allowed to change, to better myself, and let people in. Always be type-casted and labeled to fit one’s bullshit narrative! You still want Ryoko to be a party girl, even though she is so disgusted with herself! She wants to get help for her addictions, but people just enable her to have one more drink until one becomes ten, and she sleeping with how many men at once!” Natalia ranted.

Kayla may have struck a nerve as she sees Natalia mentally deteriorate, “Natalia, calm down…”

“Ayeka desperately wants to wash the blood off her hands and overcome the trauma of what she did to others; what they did to her. But she can’t! She feels her past defines her, and she feels useless to society, never forming relationships with anyone. Yet, she has the most beautiful soul I have ever seen!” Natalia sobbed.

Kayla was now getting irritated by Natalia’s nervous breakdown, “Natty, shut up!”

Then, the angered Natalia looked at Kayla with tears running down her face, “and let’s not forget about me…” She growled. “You want me to be this hard-up bitch. If only you knew the constant training and learning, I had to do… I wasn’t ALLOWED to fail! I HAD TO BE PERFECTION! A SUPREME VESSEL OF THE NETHER! BUT I WAS A FAILURE, KAYLA! I WAS A FAILURE THEN, AND I AM A FAILURE NOW!” Natalia shouted.

Pouring out her heart and soul to her rival was refreshing as if she was letting to for the first time, speaking up about her abusive treatment. Sadly, Natalia was better off talking to a brick wall Kayla was apathetic to her tearful admittance.

“Meanwhile, you are the lazy, easy-going slacker who knows everything. I don’t know what’s worse: our one-dimensional clichés they had us play out for us even trying to portray them in public? Well, I’m done…” Natalia declared while walking to the bedroom.

“Natalia, stop walking!” Kayla rushes over to her as the distraught Natalia smacks her hand away.

“No! I refuse to be that person that everybody wants me to be!” Natalia heartfully confessed as tears roll down her face. “I have destroyed so many lives! So many people are dead because of me… I know for a fact I don’t have any right to live or to be free… The only reason why I’m here… The other reason why I am here is that I want to redeem myself…”

Finding humor in her words, made Kayla roll her eyes.

Natalia shook her head in shame, “I know you, and I will never be friends. And to be quite honest, I really don’t blame you. Why wouldn’t you like somebody like me?” Natalia wiped her tears away and scowled at Kayla, “but it doesn’t matter, I will live on. To live, that is my real purpose.” Natalia walked away as she headed towards the bedroom.

That whole little stunt that Natalia pulled just now, Kayla couldn’t decide on whether to laugh or puke up her lunch. Kayla always knew that Natalia was full of hot air and usually talked tough. This time wasn’t any different as she regularly regurgitated the same rhetoric.

As stubborn Natalia was, Kayla is a lot worse. In reality, Kayla didn’t reveal all of the results. She did more than just DNA results. She did a background check on both Bĕhēmōṯ Firas and Aurora Rose Novak, but not a full one like she wanted.

Kayla didn’t have much time or resources, but it was enough. What Kayla discovered for herself was rather disturbing, yet it all made sense. Without a doubt, the uncanny connection linking Bĕhēmōṯ Firas and Aurora Rose Novak to Natalia Silvestri is paramount. And without a doubt, Adrian and Dolph Eichner are both involved with these two as well…