Creature (CENTURIES series: Book #7)

11

Sitting by my dining table, across from me in his chair with his head and eyes lowered to the bulge that still slightly protruded from behind his pants, Charlie looked nervous and so confused. It had taken me a moment to get over as well, but in hindsight I should've seen it coming. Then again, I hadn't expected him to go as far as to touch me.

"Alright, Charlie," I begun with a calm voice to let him know it was all going to be okay. Actually, more than okay. After we had had this talk, I suspected he wouldn't ever not be okay again. "Before we begin this talk, I just have to ask you a few questions. You've never experienced this happening to you before?"

Charlie shook his head, keeping his eyes down. "Is it... is it dangerous?"

I swallowed a lump and the urge to reply 'that depends on your size', and instead went for the appropriate approach; "No, it's completely safe and very natural, I promise you that. With that said, do you, ah... do you know how babies are made, Charlie?" There was really no point in beating around the bush.

Charlie looked up at me with a small frown and then eased up. "Yes, of course. An egg from a woman gets fertilized by a healthy sperm cell from a man. Then the scientist inserts the fertilized egg into the female subject's womb and—"

"Whoa, wait, okay, I think that's enough," I said and cleared my throat when Charlie frowned confused and closed his mouth again. "That's... is that what they told you in there?"

"No, that's how I was made."

"You—wait, what?" I struggled for words. "You were made as... who's your mother, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Creature 1733-N."

I blinked. And blinked again. Then felt my heart twist inside my chest. "You... you don't know your mother's real name? How about your father?"

"Creature 1309-L," Charlie prompted again, the pinch between his brows growing deeper. "What's wrong, Carly? Your heart is beating arrhythmically."

Yes, yes it was, because dear God in heaven, he didn't even know what his real parents' names were. The poor man didn't know what he had missed out on, had no fucking clue that this was all wrong. "I, uhm. I'm fine. This isn't about me," I said, swallowing hard to regain my composure. "I just had to ask you these questions before I begin... explaining."

"Explaining what?"

I took a deep breath. This was going to be more difficult than I thought. "Well, Charlie. The way you were created is just one way of making a baby. It's the clinical way of doing it, an option some humans use if they can't conceive naturally."

"Naturally?" He tilted his head in confusion.

I nodded. "Yes. Naturally. You see, uh, when a man and a woman like each other very much..." I strategically avoided using the word love just yet, "... and they want to have a baby, they do this thing that we humans call having sex. I suppose the better word for it is 'coitus', but sex is what we commonly call it when we discuss it."

"Sex..." Charlie said with a thoughtful expression. "What is it? How does one have it?"

I cleared my throat and tried my best to ignore the blush on my cheeks. Here came the awkward part. "That's why I have this box," I said and now slid forward the box I had brought with me before coming back into the living room. It was a box I had prepared for this step, the step I knew would be a big one. When I opened the lid, Charlie peaked inside curiously. "It's full of everything you need to know to understand sex and reproduction – the way all living, breathing creatures have done it since the beginning of time."