It was hideous, that thing. The raw smell of it was sickening. All around her, it reeked of flea-bitten, rotting corpses. Never has such a smell pierced her tiny nose so unpleasantly. As much as she tried to hold her breath, the nauseating smell only intensified with each step her small feet carried her.


Where am I?


Her temples began to throb, and her chest tightened. She was gasping for breath, but even so, she continued taking one step at a time, slowly placing one foot in front of the other. As much as she tried, she could no longer bear the stench.


Someone, anyone, please come save me, she begged.


This world, she soon learned, was made up of nothingness. There existed nothing but the sound of silence. She was lonely, she was scared, and most of all, she could feel the bitterness of this place enshrouding her frail body.

Tears trickled down her face as she clasped her hands around her chest. Feeling light-headed now from the nauseating smell, she knelt down on what seemed to be a smooth floor, even though it looked identical to anything else around her – a dismal, sort of black. The only sounds she heard were the echoes of her own short, raspy breaths; and the only response this world gave to her was the bitter drone of silence.

It was cold, this place. There was no warmth. There was nothing. Nothing, except her.

Wait.

She heard something. It was faint, but she could hear it.


Thump.


She froze.

Thump.

The sudden sound shot a chill down her spine.

What was that?

Her breaths were no longer the only sounds she could hear. Though closing her eyes made no difference in this abnormally dark abyss, she felt a need to discover the source of this strange sound. Perhaps someone might be there, after all.

Footsteps? No, it couldn’t be. It was much too uneven.


She looked far and wide, high and low, and deep into the empty, black space that enclosed her frail body.

Then the sound came from behind her.

Unbeknownst to her, it had been there all along. She was much too distraught by her own worries that she had forgotten to listen.


Thump.


The hollow sound echoed from behind her. Instinctively, she spun around. Quickening her pace, she felt a strange sort of attraction to the sound. It was almost like she was under a spell. Her steps were longer, much longer now. The steps turned into strides, and strides into a sprint.

This feeling seemed familiar, almost.


Thump.


The sound was getting stronger. She was close.

She wanted to know.

She wandered deeper yet into the darkness, with her heart racing faster than ever.




There.


Thump.


She could see it now. The many holes and slivers incinerated onto its back, the scars and needles that littered the front, and the unsettling sight of its body scattered into a thousand tiny shards. The possibility of putting it back together was nearly impossible. No, it was impossible.

It was a heart. A heart she once knew. A heart with whom her very own had kept safe and warm, until that day – that very day. What was once so tender and warm was now a wet, sluggish slab of an organ -- desperately beating once more as though that were its last. It was the very heart that had once been intertwined with her own. And as she witnessed the death of a heart, she pondered:


How could something that once thrived upon the existence of others have survived in such a cold and dreary world?


It was rotting now, and on the verge of dying. Moments before its death, it begged her.


Please, it pleaded, take me back.
Piece me back together, and I will promise I won't lose sight again.

How could I? she replied.
How could I embrace once more that which has been broken and deteriorating since long ago?


She couldn't, in the end.


Let it die, she decided. Its death has long been overdue.


Crack.


And as she turned her back towards the withering soul, the sound of a breaking heart echoed in the distance.