Emika dashed through bushes and foliage for a solid twenty minutes until she finally gave up. She was completely out of breath when she broke down somewhere in the woods, and started crying.

Why did literally nothing go her way? If only she had gone back into the house instead of chasing the figure… maybe she would have actually found something. Emika let out a deep sigh. What a disaster… The worst of it all was that she now had to carry all that gasoline back home. The way was arduous, and she felt like her legs were close to giving way a few times. She felt exhausted.

Clearly, there were many things she didn’t understand about her situation… There was definitely something going on behind the scenes. Some people were trying to mess with her in some way.

However, one thought gave her a semblance of solace. If her assumptions were right, she was the deadly one. She was the one the others needed to be wary of. If she just waited, then surely, at some point, they were going to make a mistake. And then she’d get them. Right?

After that, a few days went by. Emika largely just tried to keep herself calm by working on her trees, pausing every few minutes to listen if anything was happening inside her house. Other than that, she had found a few old cans of food in a closet in the basement; her parents had probably bought them long ago, so they were likely already well over ten years old. At least she didn’t have to live solely on pasta with mustard now.

Despite everything, all things considered, Emika was holding on quite well. Just wait, and they will screw up. That thought kept her going, and she scolded herself for anything else that materialised inside her brain. She deliberately avoided thinking about how sad she was, about how lonely she was, and about how exhausted and tired she was. The only thought she allowed herself to have was just that one. Wait, and they will screw up.

It definitely felt weird, though. For her entire life, her home had never been so quiet. Usually, she’d have friends over who’d keep her company, and she would have Catrine, who had always been a very active cat who loved to dart around, and then immediately came back to cuddle once exhausted. Now, there was nothing.

The nights were long, as Emika slept very poorly, if at all. It was tough without having anyone near her, but in addition, she tried to avoid falling into any form of deep sleep either, because that could cause her to miss her opportunity. She stayed wary of any sound or movement at all times, even at night, even when lightly dozing off.

It was on one of these lonely, exhausting nights that her patience finally paid off.

She was in bed. It was almost 4 am. She had gotten one, maybe two hours of sleep, and otherwise just laid awake, taking in every sound around her, when she finally heard it: The soft sliding sound of her office being opened at the other end of the corridor.

Emika quickly, and as silently as possible, got up, and pressed her ear against her bedroom wall. She didn’t hear anything for a while, so she came to the conclusion that the intruder had entered her office and not left it. Thus, she slowly left the room and softly tapped over the corridor floor with her bare feet, knowing where to place her toes to not make any sound.

The door to her office was open and the lights were on, and she heard the faint sound of paper rustling. It seemed like the intruder was going through her business files; nothing else of note was in that office.

But… Why would anyone want to go through her files?

Either way, Emika was determined to ask that person herself, but first, she wanted to see exactly who it was. She sneaked around the door to position herself in such a way so she could peek inside, and as she finally saw what it was that had nested itself inside her office, she felt a shiver go down her spine.

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It was a very small and incredibly old man. Sporadically, little puffs of dust broke free from his body and clouded the surrounding air. For a while, she just observed him. Looking at him felt strange. He was… ageing at an incredibly fast pace; his skin folded deeper and deeper into itself, new creases appearing between the other ones every second. His hair kept growing thinner and greyer, his eyes slowly faded away deeper into his skull.

In stark contrast to his appearance was his demeanour — he was very active, looking around, sifting through the paperwork almost frantically.

Emika stepped out of the shadow to face him. When he saw her, he just froze, terror in his eyes. As she towered right in front of him, for a few seconds, they just stared at each other — and then, when his jaw grew so old, so ancient, so decayed that it could not hold itself any more, it collapsed into sand. Thus, small, cloudy particles filled the air. The sand clumps too heavy to stay airborne rinsed to the ground, forming a small heap.

And then, it happened again, with his left shoulder, and again, with his ear, and a finger of his. Emika couldn’t help but be entranced. How had someone so amazing weaselled his way into her home? And yet, her indignation won against the marvel she felt at observing his peculiar appearance, and she angrily let out: “What the hell are you doing here? Are you that guy who keeps following me?”

He was still in shock. Annoyed at being ignored, Emika slowly made a step towards him, and he immediately reciprocated by stepping back. But her legs were much longer, so she was able to force him to stumble back in a way that eventually led him to bump into a wall corner, entrapping him.

Her success in this little game made Emika really happy, but she tried not to let it show. She bowed down towards him as he sank to the floor, breathing heavily, with more and more sand gathering beneath him.

Was he aware of Emika’s curse? She figured the best way to find out was to threaten him with it.

“Talk,” she said firmly, and then continued in a whisper: “Or I will touch you.”

“I’ll talk!” he finally rasped. His voice was shaky and high-pitched, and a little pathetic. “I, I, I am sorry, I truly am. I am sorry.”

What? He was sorry? Emika almost laughed out loud at his obvious lie. Sorry he got caught, maybe. However, using quite a bit of restraint, she held herself together, hoping silence would make her appear scarier. Instead, she just stared him down, waiting.

“As to your initial inquiry,” he tried to formally catch up with his own trembling voice, “I am here for… business. And…” He looked a little caught, then continued, after a gulp: “I wasn’t that much following you as I was following orders, you see…?”

His eyes were practically begging Emika to pity him, and then one of them dissolved into sand. At this point, she realised that in fact, this person wasn’t actually slowly disappearing; It was more like he was in an eternal state of fading; like a pot that would pour endless tea, or maybe like an optical illusion that kept circling on itself.

“Whose orders?” Emika asked testily, a little indignant at herself for getting distracted by this person’s amazing biology.

“That’s…” he started, but there was now a newfound horror in his gaze. After a short but distinct pause, and apparently fully aware of the danger in his upcoming words, he murmured: “That’s a bit of a trade secret…”

Emika’s eyelid twitched. That person had some nerves. She didn’t really want to kill him. Regardless of any empathetic reasons, it would probably just bring her more trouble. But the issue was she really had nothing else to threaten him with. Letting him get away without a single answer wasn’t really an option, either. After all, he was the one who had decided to come here, apparently knowing she was cursed, so in her mind, he might as well leave a little tax.

Approaching him just a bit further, she hoped that the implication would be clear enough. He squealed, pressed his eyes shut, made himself as small as possible; however, Emika wasn’t too impressed. “Come now, little friend. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to survive.”

She showed him a fake smile, putting in as much uncanny flavour as she could gather. Under her unrelenting gaze, his posture crumbled just like his body, as if this was the very moment his soul left him behind.

“So,” Emika then made her final push, knowing there was really not much else she could do, “What do you have to say to me?”