Short Story Collection by Anna Pink Mystic

Heart

There is a place where people keep their hearts in a box, a lantern glass, a jar, or anything that could hold and protect it. While in that space, their heart will beat and an element represents the exuberance of their hearts. Some hearts had flowers sprouting from the arteries and veins branching out from the heart. Some had dancing flames on candles with wax that would never melt. Some had blood flowing continuously out from one vessel to midair and returned into another. Some had small living animals around it.

The people will only open the lid of the box containing their hearts to a special person they encounter. As people fall in love, the element in the box becomes a mix of both elements, each from one another.

A girl whose heart was filled with roses sprouting from vessels kept her heart in a lantern glass. Once, she fell in love and opened the lid of her lantern glass to her partner. Ever since then, her lantern glass containing her heart was not only filled with roses but miniature swans, the element of her partner.

Everyday, she would wait at the park to meet him and the roses in her heart would bloom more vibrantly. Although he was late occasionally, she didn't mind. Sometimes, she would wait for hours.

One day, she waited at the park patiently while clutching the lantern glass containing her heart. The miniature swans weren't moving as energetically as before. They slowed down and there were feathers lying on the base of the lantern. Subsequently, her partner who was holding his jar containing his heart walked across the park while smiling. In the jar, his heart had not only swans but also candles with dancing flames. However, there were no signs of roses.

To her dismay, she ran up to him for clarity. Suddenly, a girl approached him and hooked her elbow around his. Her other hand was holding a cylindrical glass container which contained her heart with lit candles and miniature swans dancing gracefully around it. Her partner shifted his gaze from the girl with roses to the girl with lit candles and smiled at her. Side by side they walked away, leaving the girl with roses in her heart watching the two silhouettes with grief and betrayal in her eyes. She could feel a rock sinking in her chest and a sharp pain which stabbed through her.

Gradually, the roses sprouting from the vessels withered. One by one the rose petals fell to the base of the lantern. They turned from vibrant red to wrinkling and dried petals. The swans were gone, leaving nothing behind. Her heart wasn't beating as fast as before. It was weak.

The withering roses shrunk into the blood vessels of the heart, narrowing the lumen. Slowly, the dried petals flowed together with the blood in the vessels of the pumping heart and blocked the coronary arteries, causing myocardial infarction.

She was quickly sent to the hospital by the passersby. She stayed there for days, which turned into weeks, then months and eventually years. Slowly, the roses started sprouting from the blood vessels of her heart again, returning to its vibrant crimson colour. After about two years, the girl could leave the hospital and return home.

Upon reaching home, she saw a woman, her neighbour, clutching a jar containing her heart sitting in a shallow pool of blood while pumping weakly with sadness which spread across her face. The woman's husband stood at the other end of the house while staring at her with no hint of regret. What started out as a beautiful memory, had turned into a nightmare.

One day, the girl held her lantern glass tight as she walked through the crowd of people with many hearts in their respective containers. As she was walking, she noticed a young man far across the crowd who saw her too. They looked at each other for a few seconds before breaking eye contact.

The next day, the girl went to the park and noticed a group of children playing with a young man. As she scrutinised the man, she noticed he was the same man from the crowd. He shifted his gaze to her and they locked eyes once again. The young man gave her a warm smile before turning away.

The following day, she noticed the young man watching her from afar again. This time, he approached her. They started interacting with one another and slowly they met up more. Soon, they fell in love.

One evening, he presented his heart to her. His heart sat in a glass cube box with an opened lid, and there were broken miniature eggshells lying around the heart with miniature yellow fur baby birds bouncing around cheerfully.

She smiled and looked at the heart filled with baby birds with glassy eyes. She noticed small scarlet flower buds hiding within the blood vessels of his heart.

Then, she held out her lantern glass containing her rose filled heart. She placed her fingers on the lid to open it and it brushed across a crack on the glass lid. Immediately, she redrew her hand ghastly. Her gaze shifted to the young man in front of her with his opened heart. However, her eyes were filled with anxiety, uncertainty and fear.

She clutched the lantern glass close to her chest and ran away quickly, leaving the true-hearted young man with a heart filled with baby birds watching as her figure slowly became smaller and soon disappeared. The small scarlet flower buds in the vessels gradually dry up, leaving only the yellow fur baby birds bouncing slower and with sadness. He closed the lid of his glass box gently. He was hurt and sad due to the rejection.

As the girl reached home, she had a piercing pain through her chest. Memories from her past flooded her entire brain.

The lantern glass slipped from her hand and dropped to the floor with a loud clunk. As she opened her eyes, the lantern glass was not shattered, not a single crack to be seen aside from the one on the lid and her heart lay safely within the lantern glass with the blooming roses.

She retrieved the fallen lantern glass and brushed her fingers along the crack of the lid. The glass cracked when the roses in her heart withered years ago. Gradually, her fingers found its way to a tiny lock on the lid.

She felt selfish for leaving him. However, her past had returned to haunt her. Years ago, when she left the hospital, she burned the key to the lock of her lantern glass and vowed to keep her heart protected in the safe space of her lantern glass forever.