DoomPet

Chapter 54

"Ooh can you hear him?" The man pressed his ear against the wall behind him, "Listen, I can hear his cries."

His wife snapped at him, "I'm not listening to the birth of your mistress's son!"

"Our son," he quickly corrected her, "We will be raising him."

Tears welled up in his wife's eyes, "If you so desperately wanted a son why didn't you wait until I was ready to have a child again? Why did you run out and bang up this whore?!"

"We have two girls. I got tired of waiting for my chance to be a proper parent." He shrugged, "I could have waited but instead I paid a few thousand and some spare heirloom weapons we don't even use and got exactly what I wanted."

She almost broke out into a lecture about how he could be a proper parent and care about his two children, but half way through forming the first syllable she gave up. After all, when you're waiting for your husband's mistress to have his child you only found out earlier this morning over breakfast, there comes a certain point where you just have to give up and roll with the punches.

Honestly if he would have came to her and told her he wanted a son and wanted to try with a surrogate she would have understood and liked to try that option as well, but casually telling her over breakfast: "Oh yes, just a little heads up, I paid to impregnate a sex worker with money from our retirement fund, and she went into labor last night."

Not to even mention sentinels weren't even a very sexist society! Women held the same rank as men with the same ease, and there was no unanimous feeling of hatred among fathers for their female children. Her husband was just a whore fucking-

She gave up thinking about it, and stared at the hallway they were sitting down in. Smooth light gray stone made up the walls and floors, and well that was about it. The hallway was bleak and boring, a similar comparison to the probable future of her marriage. Her mother did warn her against marrying soldiers. She made a mental note to take a trek into the mountains to visit her soon.

The door to the room opened and a nurse poked her head out, "Mr. and Mrs. Umbra you can come and see him now."

Poor Mrs. Umbra shook her head, "You go. I'll stay here."

Her husband hurried off into the room to see his son. With a big excited grin on his face.

She waited outside, sitting in a chair. Despite everything she hoped the babe was ok. It wasn't his fault he was born into the strangest situation this side of the world spear. She took a flask out of her pocket and took a swig of booze, it comforted her for a moment. After a few minutes she heard chit chat in the room and decided to face the woman who had taken her place.

She walked in to see a young jovial woman laying down in a bed. Her golden blonde hair and skin was so pale she looked like she was made of milk. Was she even casting a shadow, and why did her eyes appear to be so dark? It was as though the whites of her eyes simply didn't exist. She looked like a model, but had the same terror surrounding her as though she same came from the uncanny valley. She looked perfect, too perfect, but Mrs. Umbra knew that jealousy was clouding her judgment. After all, if she didn't know about the mistress for this long maybe the mistress didn't know about her.

The mistress smiled and waved, "Hello, you must be Mrs. Umbra! I've heard so much about you!"

Mrs. Umbra wanted to slam her head off the wall, but she put on a smile and nodded, "Hello, I'm afraid my rather numbnuts husband didn't tell me about you till this morning so I'm going through a lot."

She winced, "I'm sorry for that. He said you were in the know, but on the bright side you two finally have a child now!"

"We already have two girls, but yes."

"Oh." The woman looked down at her hands sitting in her lap and started picking at her cuticles.

The awkwardness permeated the room. Everyone felt the agonizing oddness of the situation, well, everyone except Mr. Umbra. He was painfully oblivious to the situation, only happy that he had a son, unfazed with the actions he had to do to get him.

Mr. Umbra was getting stared down by one of the nurses who wanted to call up security to beat the shit out of him.

In fact, the whole staff of nurses in the room wanted to beat him up. The labor ward was rather boring most days due to the sentinels physiology not being as haphazardly and stupidly put together as human physiology was. So they were all itching for some drama and justice.

"Where is the child?" She looked around until a nurse pointed her towards a little wicker bin. Mrs. Umbra reached down and touched the small child's face. A smile formed on her lips. "Hello little one."

The babe looked healthy and strong as he slept in the cradle. Luckily he didn't look as terrifyingly perfect as his biological mother. He mirrored his father more in his looks, but hopefully he didn't mirror his awful personality.

The mistress spoke up, "I could do joint custody. He is pretty adorable."

Mrs. Umbra shook her head and gave a warm glowing smile at the woman, "Not a chance in hell. Don't even try."

That shut her up and she went back to picking her cuticles.

That annoyed Mrs. Umbra even more. She couldn't tell if she was sorry for what happened, or guilty, or just waiting to have another kid and get more money.

Now it was her husband's turn to piss her off, "I have the perfect name picked out: 'Hammond.' It's sleek and handsome!"

She laughed, "No, I'm picking the name."

"But-"

"I didn't have a say in whether he was created or not. I'm picking the mother fucking name!" She said in a murderous sing song tone. After deliberation she decided, "Crüe. It means 'team' which is what a marriage should be. He'll be a constant reminder of your failure as a husband to keep our team and marriage together." She hissed at him through gritted teeth.

"And that's the story of why she hates you so much!" Crüe's father sneered in his face as the young teen was sitting down at the kitchen table. "She doesn't even think you should be part of this family. Just listen to your name Crüe! It's a mockery, a joke!"

Mrs. Umbra stood, leaning against the counter of the kitchen crying softly, "Crüe, it's not true. I love you. You're not my son in flesh and blood but you are in every other way."

"Then why did you say I was only half a part of the family, mom? And that I was lucky you still kept me around?" Crüe had been crying for the past hour on and off. While his dad told him stories about how the family didn't want him and how his mom begged and apologized.

"When you were first born I felt those things, I don't know why I brought them up. I don't feel that way about you Crüe. You have to understand." Mrs. Umbra went to sit down beside him, but he shook his head, "No."

Suddenly his father erupted into a screaming fit, Crüe flinched but it wasn't towards him, it was toward his siblings that were peeking their heads from out around the corner to listen to the arguing.

It suddenly dawned on Crüe that they were only his half siblings. He truly was only half in the family...

He stood abruptly and ran out the door onto the front porch, sprinting down the street. His chest heaved and dust kicked out from under his feet. The dirt sticking to his sweat covered skin.

He heard his mother cry out and fall down the porch stairs. She screamed on her hands and knees, begging for him to come back, but Crüe couldn't, he knew he couldn't. He ran and ran and ran, all the way into the city and into the clutches of the Deags.