Second Heartbeat Novels & Stories

Garret asks. “Yeah… Let me double check…” The tech says. The pulse of a heartbeat sounds through the room. My heart finally calms down. The baby was fine… Garret squeezes my hand and I look at him. He gives me a faint smile. “Do you hear that?” Dr Reed asks us. We look at her. “Hear what?” I ask. “There’s more than one heartbeat. You see right behind your one baby, there’s another hiding…” she shows me.

Caelum settled next to me, his breathing slow and calming as he pulled me close so that I am lying on top of his chest, my ears leaning on his heart that thudded occasionally. “This organ has been dormant for two thousand years. I have never expected that it will beat again,” his words made me stop. I put my hands on top of my chest and listened – though it may not beat consistently like a normal heart would, it is very enchanting to hear it thud as though it has just waken.

I breathe in a slow, shallow rhythm and let my feet find the floor. Three taps on my thigh. Two. One. The rhythm grounds me. A ritual for a ghost who has nearly forgotten her own name. I step back into the main suite, dragging my heels—mimicking the exhaustion of a woman three months into a difficult pregnancy. Forty-two heartbeats per minute. Too low for a human, but the DNA Key is already reshaping my cardiovascular system to handle the surges. A chime from the double doors.

He could hear the steady, rhythmic beat of Adrian’s heart right against his ear. Thump... thump... thump... Ethan closed his eyes for a moment, listening to that rhythm. It felt comforting, solid, and safe. But as he paid closer attention, he noticed something strange. Every minute or two, Adrian’s heart rate would suddenly jump, giving a fast, fluttering double beat before returning to its slow pace. Ethan opened his eyes and looked up at Adrian.

I shake my head, “TWO?! No.” “It keeps hiding from me, the little shit,” Natalia murmurs, still moving her thing all frantically along my belly, “Sky? There is most definitely two of them. I’m so, so sorry I missed this last time. If we pay close attention, we can hear the two different heartbeats… listen very closely. They’re in sync, but there’s two.”

She doesn’t tell us much she just keeps whispering, and one of the ladies leaves, coming back with a man. This can’t be good. He peers at the screen and checks to see if he can find the baby. I feel my heart break; something has happened. “Well, there is a heartbeat.” He smiles, and together we hear the heart beating. “And there is a second heartbeat,” he turns, smiling at us, moving it again so we can hear the other heartbeat. Lying here, I take it in. Are there really two? Jackson looks worried. “The baby has two hearts? How is that even possible?” He looks at me with concern.

I asked. “I doubt little one, but something doesn’t feel right….” Then I heard it. A second heartbeat. I froze. It was soft, faint—but unmistakable. I blinked, pressing a hand to my chest, then lower... my stomach. Was this possible… My breath hitched. I closed my eyes, listening again. Thump-thump... thump-thump. Tears flooded my eyes. I wasn’t alone. I placed my trembling hand over my abdomen, a sob escaping my lips. The heartbeat, it wasn’t mine. It was smaller, but I just knew it somehow.

It sounded like my baby had just finished a race because his heart was really racing like a horse. “That’s the heartbeat of your second baby." * #TBC

The screen's cold light rendered his face nearly pale, the reflection on his lenses hiding the eyes behind them. But he knew his own heart rate at that moment. He had measured it. It matched the rhythm of his keystrokes, the frequency with which he refreshed that curve. He pulled his hands from the keyboard and pressed one to his chest. The heartbeat was heavier than he had anticipated, each beat distinct and palpable.

A heartbeat echoes around the room followed by an extra beat. “Neah, you are further along. Give or take six weeks.” “I am?” "You didn't know?" "No." “What’s wrong with the heart beat?” I demand “Nothing, it is just what it sounds like when a mother is carrying twins.”