章 146: Fortune teller
Somewhere in the vast city of New York, there was a modest shop. A hand-painted sign hung above the entrance, displaying the name of the place in neat letters: [Visions of the Unknown. Want to know your future? Come in here]
Upon crossing the threshold, a soft jingle of bells welcomed the customer. The walls of the small shop were adorned with elegant, dark tapestries.
On a nearby shelf, old-looking books were stacked side by side. There were also small statues of mythical figures and amulets from different cultures.
In the center of the room was a round table draped in a deep red cloth. There was a chair on each side of the table: one for the client and one for the fortune teller. The only object on the table was a crystal ball.
A session was underway. A middle-aged woman with curls and a few wrinkles was listening intently and with deep concentration to the person seated across from her.
Opposite her sat a hooded figure, speaking in a calm and measured tone, hands hovering near the crystal ball as if reading the future.
"An important piece of news is approaching your life… Depending on how you respond, you will either forge an unbreakable bond or all trust will be lost…" said the hooded figure, who was none other than Luke.
He had set up a fortune-telling business. Money didn't matter to him; he needed to practice his mental reading, and the best way was to have people willingly sit in front of him, looking at him intently without moving.
This way, he could enter their minds and begin navigating their memories. First, he would see memories from the past few hours or minutes. Then he would delve deeper—memories from days, weeks, even months ago.
His plan was to improve his memory-reading abilities while the person whose memories he was reading remained conscious. Although it wasn't the same as reading memories in the middle of a battle—where it's harder to focus on navigating an enemy's mind, especially if they're resisting—it was effective practice.
On the other hand, doing it on normies was much easier than with outcasts. With normies, he could read memories from months back while they remained conscious, staring at him without moving.
As for outcasts in a fight, he wasn't certain, as he hadn't tried it yet, but Luke believed he would be able to read memories from weeks back. This was a significant improvement compared to when he read the mind of the wolf-man from the Kairia clan, where he could only access memories from a few hours prior with just eye contact.
While reading memories during a battle might not seem as impressive as his Void Blade, which could cut through materials harder than steel, it was a skill not to be underestimated.
In battle, knowing your enemy by reading their mind could be invaluable. Their personality, habits, techniques, any traumas, or triggers to make them angry—all of this knowledge could be useful if known in advance.
If someone wore a hood, he could discover their identity by reading their memories without needing to knock them unconscious. Uncovering their plans would make things much easier.
"What news? What should I do? How should I react?" asked the middle-aged woman, leaning closer to the table and staring at Luke.
She had never believed in fortune tellers or future readers, but her life was going in a bad direction. Going to a therapist hadn't helped much, and a friend had recommended this strange place.
When she first sat down, she was very skeptical, looking distrustfully at the man sitting across from her, as if he were a fraud. But after a few minutes of conversation, she was left speechless.
This man seemed to know a lot about her past, though not the distant past—things she hadn't told her friend or her therapist. A true fortune teller, she wanted to believe. He guessed her name as soon as she sat in the chair. Her name was Martha.
"In time, you'll know. All in due course," Luke said, trying to sound mysterious.
"Please, tell me! I'll pay more!" Martha said, pulling money from her small purse and firmly placing two hundred dollars on the table.
Luke looked at the money on the table. After a few seconds, he slowly extended his hand and took the money.
"The news will come from your daughter, Rachel," Luke said.
Martha wasn't surprised that the fortune teller knew her daughter's name, as he had revealed it to her a few minutes earlier.
"What will Rachel tell me?" Martha asked, a hint of fear in her voice. On one hand, she didn't want any grim news, like her daughter having a deadly illness or something similar. On the other hand, her relationship with her daughter was tense and gradually worsening compared to years ago.
"Your daughter carries a new life within her," Luke said gravely after a few moments of silence.
Martha's eyes widened in surprise, and for an instant, her breath caught. Luke had captured that memory from a week ago, when Rachel and Martha had a seemingly trivial conversation.
In the memory, Rachel had come in nervously, with an anxious expression. She held a positive pregnancy test in her hands, but Martha hadn't noticed it since she was cooking with her back to her.
Rachel hadn't shown her the pregnancy test, changed the subject, and quickly left the room.
Luke was navigating the memory from his own perspective, so he saw Rachel and the pregnancy test she held in her hand. This wasn't fortune-telling, though it would seem so once Martha confirmed it with her daughter.
"Really? If it's true, why didn't she tell me anything?" Martha murmured, a bit confused and unsure about accepting this news as absolute truth.
"Your daughter fears your reaction. She's afraid of disappointing you since she hasn't finished her college degree and now has to take responsibility for a baby," Luke commented, and Martha was once again surprised that the fortune teller knew her daughter was in college.
"Sometimes, my reaction might be misinterpreted—it's just concern," Martha replied.
"The only advice I can give you is to help your daughter in her journey to becoming a mother and not to criticize her. Otherwise, your relationship with her will end, and you'll never see your grandchild," Luke said in a somber tone, adding a bit of drama to the situation.
The session time was up, and Martha hurried out of the shop, respectfully bidding farewell to Luke as she left.
'Another workday complete,' Luke thought, stretching and glancing at the time on an old clock hanging in a corner of the shop. It was five in the afternoon.
Luke and Wednesday had a brief stint as vigilantes. In just three days, they gathered the pieces they needed for the resurrection ritual. In those three days—or rather, nights—they took down some of the filthiest criminal gangs in New York.
For Luke, it was less thrilling than he had anticipated. It was too easy, even though they avoided using their auras during fights. They only used them to travel undetected by surveillance cameras.
The news of the eradication of the three criminal gangs made headlines across the United States, going viral in no time. It wasn't strange, given they found a club full of seriously injured criminals, some dead, and others missing limbs—a rare sight.
No one knew who was responsible for this. Photos of Luke and Wednesday in their vigilante outfits were almost nonexistent, but a few circulated online, thanks to today's era where everyone has high-quality camera phones.
However, nobody believed that two people could take down three heavily armed gangs alone. As a result, the few photos that did circulate went largely unnoticed.
'Being a vigilante sucks,' Luke thought as he left his shop. He locked the door and began walking.
Unlike the superheroes in comics, movies, or series, he didn't have that feeling of helping people without expecting anything in return. He only did it for two reasons: for the ritual and to see if fighting a crowd of "normies" would be exciting.
Since the eclipse was on August 15, he and Wednesday had plenty of time before needing to travel covertly to Nevermore. So, he decided to open a fortune-telling business to train his blue aura.
What could be better than having normies knocking on your door and sitting in front of you, ready for their brains to be read? Plus, earning money from it.
At first, it was hard to get clients since few people trust these kinds of things and look at you with suspicion, but with some clients, he altered their memories so they'd spread the word that his place was the best experience they'd ever had and that he wasn't a fraud.
'Today's Wednesday's birthday. I should get her something,' thought Luke as he began walking and browsing various stores.
It was Wednesday's 16th birthday—a milestone that outcasts took very seriously. The age of 16 had symbolic power in outcast society.
Luke thought it was nonsense, having turned 16 a few weeks earlier himself and feeling no different.
'A new aura wouldn't hurt,' he thought as he looked at pricey women's clothing stores.
Since the 16th birthday held so much importance, Morticia and Gomez were preparing a big party for Wednesday. All the Addams would come to the birthday and the Frumps were also supposed to attend.
The Frumps were Morticia's family—a powerful and prominent psychic family, counted among the "Big Six."
Knowing the importance of turning 16, Wednesday reluctantly accepted the idea of such a grand celebration, aware they would throw it regardless. Her only other option would be to run away, but she preferred to endure one night with her annoying relatives and then return to her routine.
'A lineage of two psychic families belonging to the Big Six,' thought Luke.
The Big Six weren't just distinguished by their age and history; their genes were also far superior to those of other psychics. So having both lineages was no small matter.
'The Umbrio family isn't bad either,' thought Luke, as he entered a store.
After looking through several dresses presented by a helpful saleswoman, Luke decided on a long-sleeved, short dress in a dark tone with fine white vertical stripes, giving it an elegant look that still respected Wednesday's color scheme.
'I wonder what the other Addams and the Frumps are like,' thought Luke as he drove back to the Addams mansion in an Audi.
He was curious to meet the rest of the Addams family and Morticia's family. Naturally, the party would be held at night.
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