“You. I doubt you.”

I blurted this out before I was aware of myself speaking. I had no intentions of speaking and yet I couldn’t seem to stop, “I doubt if you are real. You are unlike any I have come across.”

Adele laughed then looking more childlike than ever with her round face, pastel clothes and headband wrapped around her short hair. Oddly the ends of it stuck up in such a way that reminded me of a bunny rabbit.

It was cute.

There’s that word again….

Adele gestured to the gun I held, her first real acknowledgment of it, “I am real. Trust me. If you pull that trigger I will bleed like everyone else.” Then she cocked her head and asked curiously, “Do you bleed?”

I didn't answer or blink, but I was thrown off base as I considered her question. Since awakening as a Prototype PseudoMor I have never seen myself bleed before. Did I bleed? I had never thought to ask. Honestly, I didn’t not know. We weren’t humans although we used to be. So did blood still pump through our veins or something else entirely?

“You don't know?” Adele asked shrewdly. Then she gave pause, “Do you have a heart?”

This was an answer I knew. A Prototype PseudoMor still maintained their heart though it was enhanced like the rest of their body. But still could that be qualified as a heart like a human? didn't know that either.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Adele smiled again, “Well, if you have a heart, then you are more mortal than you care to admit.”

I didn’t want to think about how she seemed to be reading my mind.

So I demanded clutching the gun once, “What’s your endgame?”

Even in the dark with only the light from the window I could see clearly her eyebrows shooting up, “Endgame?”

“The reason for all this?”

She cocked her head, “This?”

I waved my gun once, “This.”

“Ahhh…..” she sung once before answering, “Ah, this. Everyone deserved an oasis, a place of peace, do you think? I just want to contribute to that.”

I was growling unexpectedly frustrated with this woman. And emotion that I hadn’t felt in a long time. In fact, I don’t think I felt it at all since awakening as a PseudoMor.

“Why? All around you the world falls apart, so why? Why bother with this charade?”

Are we sure she wasn’t some kind of prototype or Alien I didn't know about? Wait, if she was a prototype of some kind the City would know it, even if she went rogue. So an alien? I’m sure an alien could infiltrate without the City knowing about it. But only for so long. The City did not play.

Adele gave a shrug, “The better question is why not? If the whole world forgets peace isn’t that too sad? If one remembers and then isn’t there hope for rebuilding?”

My hand fingered the trigger as I pronounced, “You will not live to see that day.”

Adele Zoeway just sat there with a small smile before calmly shutting her eyes.

And then….

And then I pulled the trigger…..