Heartless - Chapter 23：Unfeeling

Arriving on the bridge, the forest could be seen glowing a faint red. The vampires were laughing happily.

“Ha! It won’t be long I’m tellin’ ya!” one of them said with glee.

“Just a tug of the heart now but a wrench later!”

They twirled around me, throwing taunts all over the place. Of course, they weren’t wrong. What starts out small can snowball into something large. Something this trivial wasn’t worth the wrath of the forest.

As its keeper, I wasn’t its master, merely it servant.

But even a servant rebels at times, willingly or unwillingly. And this time it might be the feeling of an itching heart, but the next one might be of a burning one.

The forest wouldn’t take any chances whatsoever, much of the world relies on it after all. It doesn’t take its job lightly.

I headed home, ignoring the vampires who soon left me out of boredom.

“Your already home?” Melinda asked, pouting as she stepped out of the masters bedroom, the bedroom that ‘father’ was sleeping in.

“Was there something I shouldn’t know about?” I asked, heading straight to my room without looking at her.

“Edward hasn’t changed a single bit,” she replied, voice doused with sugar.

“So have you,” I responded.

She laughed, “You know, before I remembered, I always thought there was something wrong with you. And there really is.”

“I see.”

“If I earned a penny for every time you said ‘I see’ or ‘I suppose’ I could make homelessness the thing of the pass.”

“I suppose.”

“Even ice melts, did you know that?”

“I suppose.”

“Nothing stays the same, everything is moving. Even if your heart stays as cold as ice, it won’t be long before it melts. We can feel it, it started today and I’m sure the Rainbow Crow can as well.”

“Is that so?”

“It is so, the forest is growing weak. Don’t you crave it? The raw emotions of a human?” Melinda said with a trace of mockery in her voice. It should be known that she looks down on humans, but she never took to note that she was like them.

The humans were controlled by their emotions, but vampires were controlled by their hunger. In the end, there isn’t much of a difference between them if you really thought about it.

“I suppose.”

“It’s your deepest wish isn’t it?”

“I suppose.”

Melinda sighed, “You’ve always been selfish, haven’t you? Being emotionless is a flaw by itself.”

“I have no control over who I am.”

“You’ve gave up trying, correct?”

“I suppose. You’re rather nosy today.”

“You mean I’m rather human today? Well let me tell you, Edwards whispered my name. It’s been a long time I’ve heard my name said with love,” Melinda said, her voice going wistful.

I then stepped into my room, Melinda was truly love struck. Vampires were usually heartless, but that was because not many would give them a heart. I wonder, would anyone give me the feeling of love? A flitting thought, a dangerous one. But thoughts evolve into dreams and dreams into wishes when they couldn’t come true.

I lied on my bed, if a corrupted heart could find love, then why couldn’t a frozen one find love?

But the wistful feeling, or the sorrow of broken dreams wouldn’t enter me and so leaving the thoughts to be nothing but meaningless. Unable to evoke any such emotions, it simply sank into the darkness, freezing into my heart.

But no matter how far something exists, no matter how long it may be frozen or pushed to the bottom of your mind, it still exists. And like most living things, it will fight to be known even if you refuse to acknowledge it.

And so it brewed a small storm in the back of my mind, a place where even I didn’t know of, much less the forest. And one day, it will show itself, but not until it was ready.