Adrianna; Psychic of Valecon Shadow Oranization
Copyright© 2026 by A duck named TEF
Chapter 8
“Sister, don’t you know you’re pregnant?”
The statement was still registering. Nothing else existed around her but those six words. Her lungs seemed to fill with ice, she couldn’t catch her breath.
She was laying down when she felt the fog of sleep fading. Her eyes opened tentatively, light assaulting her vision. Adrianna picked herself up to a sitting position and heard a muffled argument somewhere in a neighboring room.
A gentle squeeze to her hand brought her attention to the young boy sitting beside her. “I didn’t tell no one. If you didn’t know, I doubt they do.” He looked at his feet and kicked a dust bunny under the bed. “I guess it makes sense, you being a psychic but not knowing you’re pregnant. Hard to read a mind when the brain isn’t formed yet huh?”
Adrianna smiled at Neesha and lovingly rested her free hand on her belly. “Thank you. Please continue to keep this a secret, okay?”
Neesha beamed, “I promise!”
“What’s the yelling about?”
“That? The scary Mr. Dietrich guy is yelling at Mr. Reynard.”
So she wouldn’t have to address Reynard about his lack of supervising his own child after all. Served him right.
Casting a glance towards the window, Adrianna saw that the day was coming close to it’s end. Amber light from the setting sun began to bath the room. Despite the gentle glow that filled the space, there was an unmistakable coldness felt by those with an empathetic spirit. Those like the young psychic in the bed.
Neesha was fussing with a loose string on his pant leg, wanting to stay in the room with Adrianna while his new father and the lord of the Estate continued their argument. He didn’t pick up on the heavy silence within the room.
“Neesha, did we receive any new guests today? Or did anything out of the ordinary happen?” She asked the young boy.
He looked up at her and raised a brow, “Well, no guests as far as I know, but I don’t know what’s normal for here or not. I’m sorry. Why? What’s bugging you?”
Adrianna patted the boy’s head and shook her own. She didn’t know how to explain it, nor did she want to cause any worry for the young boy. Instead she swung her legs to the side and lifted herself from the bed. Neesha stood and stepped back, ready to follow her even if she put herself into the argument ensuing nearby.
She didn’t want to get her new brother into any trouble, but Neesha wasn’t about to leave Adrianna’s side quite yet either. After quietly exiting the room she relented and allowed for the young one to follow her.
“Where are we going?” He asked as they slipped into the staff lift.
“There’s something going on, it feels, difficult.” She looked at Neesha as he gazed up at her. “If you’re going to follow me, be quiet, I don’t want anyone to know we’re sneaking around.”
Neesha nodded and held Adrianna’s hand as the doors to the lift opened. They stepped into a the first of the lower levels. This was the place where Adrianna’s classes were held, no doubt Neesha would be attending classes at this level as well.
At the late hour there wasn’t a soul around. Just a low hum from the lighting along the ceiling following the walls. Somewhere there was the sound of a machine beeping. Beyond glass peering into the different rooms and offices the glow of slumbering monitors dimly shone on empty desks.
As the two walked further down the halls their footfalls echoed softly. Adrianna had never been here during a time without another soul. It felt almost as if she were invading a sacred place. These halls were not hallowed though, just empty.
Neesha moved his gaze from side to side as the two continued on. He was taking in the scents and sounds of the place void of people. It was much different than when Reynard quickly took him about. The next level down was where he met Adrianna, and he noted how different this level felt from that one.
The lower they went, the more of a stifling oppression could be felt by the two. The lower levels had an almost painful melancholy tainting them.
“There’s a morgue.” Neesha quietly said, squeezing Adrianna’s hand as they entered the fourth level down, a place neither had been to.
“A morgue? At this level? How do you know?” There was another morgue above ground that Adrianna had visited a few times for anatomy lessons. Why the Estate would need two morgues gave her pause.
Neesha pointed to a set of steel doors, a bio-lock placard on the wall to the left of them. “That’s it. I can smell death no matter how well they maintain a cool atmosphere. Death is unmistakable.”
It was a little unnerving that this boy knew the smell of death. Adrianna wondered how often he had been around it. Just as she began to ponder on the thought Neesha shuddered as if he had been shocked by something. The hair on his head raised slightly and his skin prickled with goosebumps. He took an unconscious step back.
“Neesha?”
“There’s something up ahead, something causing that weird thing that happens when you rub your sock feet on a fuzzy floor and touch something metal and get shocked.” He was having difficulty thinking of the right name for the force he was feeling.
“Static? Something’s causing a static charge?” As she asked the question, she too, began to feel the unmistakable charge of static in the atmosphere.
Adrianna took Neesha’s hand back into her own, and with a reassuring smile, she gently pulled him along, deeper down the hallway.
The two finally came to a point where the windows along the side of the hallway looked down into what looked almost like an operation theater. There were two occupants in the theater, Daemion and Miss Shureaux. The latter was seated, or rather scrapped, into a strange looking chair with wires spreading out from under it.
“Are you sure this is how you wish to spend your last moments?” Daemion asked, in his hands a strange helmet.
Miss Shureaux gazed upon the giant of a man, a tender smile on her face. “Yes, I want the experience documented. Let my last moments be spent documenting and providing more insights into the mechanics of death. Just promise me the data will be put to good use.” Her voice was low, and her eyes so dark they seemed to swallow the very light around her.
Daemion breathed a heavy sigh and placed the helmet upon her head, plugging it into the back of the chair and then facing her once more. “I just wish that we had had more time together. Of all my lovers, you have been the closest to me.” He stroked the side of her face, she leaned her head toward his hand and closed her eyes, a single tear ran down and fell from the tip of her chin.
“Remember, I want my ashes in the grotto of the Laguna Breeze island. Spread under a new moon, like the night we first met.” Her voice cracked, betraying her the fear she felt at this, her second and final death.
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