June 13 2026, 9:59pm
The echoes of the door as it forcefully hit its hinges made Nyx’ara flinch in fear, but beside the fear running through her veins was a curiosity that she could not resist.
She wanted to know whatever it was that made the old woman act so paranoid, and she wanted to see... to witness the Alphas when they were in full rampage mode.
It seems like you do not like your life.
However, just as the thought crossed her mind, she quickly crossed it out as she could already see an image of the old woman in her mind, shaking her head at her... well, speaking of the old woman... she face-palmed herself. "I n-never a-asked for her n-name!"
She was soon pulled out of that thought when she caught sight of the food resting at the table situated just beside the bed, and usually, for any sane person, she would have gone to have her bath first. She would have tried to clean up the three-month-old accumulated dirt in her hair and body... but she was not sane.
She was a woman who had known nothing but starvation and deprivation for several years.
And for this reason, she rushed over to the food tray— which contained a simple dish of white rice and some chicken sauce— and began to gobble it all up.
Beside the plate was a glass of clean water which she chugged down her throat. It wasn’t until she was done and full for the first time in so many years, that she finally let go and began to admire what was left of the room.
She opened the dresser and noticed that there were about ten pairs of old clean clothes folded inside. The bathroom was a beauty housing a white duck-shaped tub, a simple sink with a duck-shaped tap, and a small drawer which contained basically... essentials.
A soft sigh slipped out of Nyx’ara’s lips as she slowly discarded her filthy clothes, turned on the tap, and waited until the tub was full before she sank into it.
The water was warm— slightly hotter than the usual warm— but it was just how she needed it.
She spent the next few minutes scrubbing her skin and washing her hair, and by the time she finally finished, her hair was back to its usual platinum blonde color and her skin, darkened from months of accumulated dirt, was now pale and smooth.
She moisturized her body with the lavender oil she had found in the drawer and stepped into the room.
Now, it was darker and quieter as most people had retired to their homes. Birds chirped from a faraway distance and from her window, she could see the guards parading around the premises.
With deft fingers, she draped an ugly gray dress over her body, lay on the bed, and closed her eyes...
But sleep would not come.
She turned, tossed, sought different comfortable sleep positions... but still nothing.
In frustration, she squeezed her eyes tightly shut, forcing her mind to replay the events of the day, but just as sleep began to sink in and her mind began to fade, she suddenly heard the faint sound of claw scratches by her door.
In fear, she sat up.
For a moment, she simply sat there, staring at the closed door with her heart beating fast against her chest like it was a formidable opponent. Her hands which were clutching the front of her dress shook with terror as the scratch sounds continued, intensifying with each passing moment.
She tried to stand up but the thought of alerting whoever it was that was on the other end of the door coupled with the words that the old woman had said to her earlier kept her rooted in place.
She would not move nor speak. Heck, she had no idea if this was one of the quadruplets or all of them.
Just as she began to sweat in her palms and her heart threatened to shoot out of her chest... she heard a sound.
’Meow...’
She froze.
That was definitely a cat. There was no disputing that.
’Meow,’ the sound came again, louder this time, and despite the fear gnawing at her insides and the way her body shook like that of a person stricken with anxiety, she still forced her limbs to move... towards the door.
Deep down, she feared that this was a trap. There was no telling what would become of her if she opened that door. Her heart wouldn’t stop hammering against her chest like a wild bird... but at the moment she cared less.
Not really, but she wasn’t scared enough to NOT open the door.
With frozen fingers— fingers frozen with fear— she pried the door open and her breath hitched in her throat when she came face to face with a white furry cat.
Probably Persian... Idk.
The creature looked up at her with shiny wise blue eyes, tilted its head to the side, and strode into her room through the semi-open door like it owned the place.
Nyx’ara didn’t waste much time, she slammed the door shut and turned to the cat.
"H-hey?" She called out, but the feline would only glance at her for a second, like she wasn’t worth more than that, and crawled up to her bed.
For a moment, she contemplated throwing it outside. She worried about its owner and how distraught they might be, but the thought of opening that door one more time... of risking alerting the quadruplets of her presence... filled her with more than enough fear to make her dispel that thought.
So she once again turned to the cat, who had somehow found comfort in her bed, and asked;
"W-hat are y-you d-doing here?"
It wouldn’t move. It wouldn’t even look at her.
"W-hat a-about your owner? W-hat is y-your name?"
All her questions fell on deaf ears, not like they could be answered in the first place. She planted her hands on her hips, stared at the cat for a couple of seconds, and after deciding that it was not a threat, she joined in on the bed, half expecting it to jump off, but surprisingly, it didn’t.
Instead, it moved to the side just so that Nyx’ara could get into the bed and then curled into her chest after she had settled in.
Nyx’ara’s eyes widened.
It wasn’t until that moment that she finally noticed the tiny golden collar wrapped around its neck. At the center of the collar was a tiny golden pendant— gold not gold-coated.
She peeked at the scribbled letters written there and saw a single word: Coco.
"Y-your name is Coco?" She asked the cat who responded by smuggling even closer to her chest.
The heat from the creature warmed Nyx’ara immensely but just as she was about to sleep off... as her eyes began to drift close... she heard a very frightening roar echo somewhere beyond the closed door.
"COCO!"
She sat upright immediately, making the cat scamper away from her chest, but not leaving the bed.
She almost thought that she had imagined the sound. That it must’ve come from somewhere inside her dreams, but when it came again and again, causing the walls to rattle with terror, her body froze.
"COCO!" The powerful voice yelled one more time, and the way it made the walls tremble spoke more of the power it held than the worry she could feel dripping off each call.
She turned to the cat who at the moment was curled up in her lap, and began to shake violently.
Why?
Because that voice— as she could remember— belonged to one of the quadruplets, and now that she thought of it, it hit her with a jarring clarity that this was their cat.
It had to be.
Because which normal cat would own a collar made from pure gold?