Rin spent the next few days bugged by a string of strange, petty incidents. The receipt made a habit of showing itself everywhere she went – between the pages of her book, underneath her breakfast plate, stuck on the window, on the mirror of the washroom -

She always ripped it off in annoyance.

She even burned it. Rin generally disliked using her ability wantonly. The Sacred Fire had the ability to devour anything and everything and naturally attracted Seeds and occasionally greedy hearts who coveted the ability. The receipt, however, seemed to possess an ability to replicate itself beforehand, so by the time she ignited the fourteenth copy into oblivion and attracted a swarm of wasp-like Seeds, she gave up.

Rin had no idea how it was going to collect the debt from her. Neither had she any idea what it felt like to lose a portion of her heart. She was starting to feel that the entire affair was a mistake, a self-dug pit of trouble.

To add to her ire, there was a very, very faint presence of Seed that forever lingered about her.

It was like an additional sense she developed over the years of Hunting. Each Seed had a unique aura, like humans and thumbprints. She couldn’t help but feel this one was rather familiar.

Cnaris, of course, was incensed.

“Whatever it is, I want it out of my house by this weekend,” he snapped.

Between the schoolwork she missed and library duties, she barely had time to return to Pallin.

The last straw was, however, on Thursday afternoon.

She was heading towards the bakery to collect the bread Mirelle ordered the day before. A loose newspaper tossed around by the wind wrapped itself around her boots. She bent down to remove it. The headline read, Man Found in Gruesome -

Movement ahead caught her eye.

Just five feet in front of her, at the junction where the florist was, she saw him.

Her heart missed a beat.

His lean figure, his high school uniform, and the red hair the precise shade as hers were just like how she remembered. He was talking on the phone and laughing, walking past the junction into the next street – away from her.

Wait -

Rei! The name nearly left her lips when she regained her senses and stopped herself. She lowered her hand, fingers curling against her palm.

The last time she saw him had been five years ago. For five years, she kept his memory deep in the recesses of her heart. What was left were fragments of what she remembered of him. She would someday forget him, and the prospect of it scared her.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

And there he was earlier, as though he had walked right out of her memories to remind her -

It’s impossible. It’s not him.

Rei was dead.

Her momentary shock turned into anger.

“Would you let me look into your heart?”

It invoked a raw emotion inside her that she had almost forgotten. How dare it use the memory of her brother against her?

She stood rooted on the spot, seething. A single line of thought crossed her mind: Whoever the mastermind is, they will pay a hefty price.

*

Cnaris was in a foul mood from the Seed contamination, resorting to door slamming and fault-picking with every little thing – to Mirelle’s chagrin, so she decided to head out to do some shopping. Rin’s head pounded from the lack of sleep throughout the past week. Unable to stand the noise, she retired to her room.

Tumbling into bed felt like the best choice she had ever made. She closed her eyes, and sleep engulfed her almost immediately.

When she opened her eyes, she was standing on Osmanthus Street. The lights blinked overhead, and lanterns were suspended in midair, bright against the night sky. Promotions and discounts blared on loudspeakers. Troupes of dancers performing in front of a shop celebrated its grand opening, their lavish dresses swishing to the beat.

A hand grabbed hers. She looked down.

It was the same girl – with hollow eyes and an expressionless face.

“Help me,” the girl said.

The owner of the jerky shop came up to her, beaming, and held up a tray with a single platter of samples in the middle. “Have a try, miss. Our products are freshly made.”

The girl was gone.

The vibrant lights went off.

The people went lifeless – as though they ran out of battery. They stopped in their tracks, slumped against the walls, all with their heads hung low.

Silence fell like a dense, heavy blanket.

“Greetings, esteemed client.”

Rin turned around.

Standing in the middle of the street where all life had halted was a sole figure wearing a bowler hat that covered his face.

She recognized his voice. The Manager of the Heart Shop.

He looked up.

Her heart dropped.

That pale visage akin to a mask, too smooth to be real. Eyes with hollow sockets. A crescent that represented his smiling mouth.

“Would you like to trade your heart?”

There was a crack, and every head in the vicinity whipped up in unison, staring in her direction – all wearing similar faces.

Before she could react, the Manager was in her face. “Would you like to trade your heart?”

This time, the voice was inside her ears.

She winced.

An invisible force coiled around her neck, and she reached for it, fingers wrapping around empty air.

Her feet slowly lifted off the ground –

*

Rin woke with a start.

She was still lying on her bed. Taking a few moments to calm herself, she pushed herself up.

Her headache worsened thanks to the nightmare, throbbing deep in her temples.

She headed to the washroom, deciding that a splash of water in the face would do some good. As she turned the tap on, she glanced at her reflection in the mirror.

At the sides of her neck, were bruises in the shape of fingers.

The doorbell rang, with urgency and desperation, but not the rude blaring as a few days back.

Mirelle was still out running grocery shopping. Cnaris was locked in his study, obviously not going to open the door, so Rin did, water dripping off the edge of her chin.

Rayve stood on the other side, hair tousled and clothes haphazardly thrown on. Worry painted his face, hiding a stronger emotion beneath his wide eyes and tense shoulders – fear.

“Please,” he said between breaths. Rin wondered if he had run all the way. “I’d hate to ask but -”

He looked like he was struggling internally. Rin somehow guessed what he was going to say before the words left him.

“Please help Hayle.”