Hung Man's Tree part 2

Hung Man’s Tree

Part 2

 

 Soul groaned loudly when the bed dipped repeatedly. His eyes slowly opened and through the darkness, he saw his wife getting dressed. The moonlight filtered through their curtains and perfectly hit her bare back.

    “Maka?” Soul inhaled loudly and rubbed his eyes. “It’s still night. Come back to bed.”

    Maka didn’t answer him. She pulled her shirt over her head and tied a ribbon of her strings.

    “Are you okay, sweetheart?” He grew more worried at his wife missing reply. The fatigue from sleeping quickly went away and he sat up on their bed. “Maka? Is something wrong?” He watched his wife as she headed toward the door to their bedroom and grabbed the red coat of hers.

    His heart speeded. Something was wrong. Goosebumps grew on his arms and neck and instantly, he got out of their bed and quickly stepped into his pants. “Maka?” He followed her out of their bedroom, kept repeating her name, but she was silent as the grave. Soul was surprised when she exited their house without grabbing any shoes. In his haste he grabbed her shoes and continued after her. The full moon was out and stared them down as they walked down their small patch of land. Worry blossomed in his chest as he kept trying to grab her attention.

    “Maka! What are you d―” his hand grabbed her shoulder and flipped her around toward him. Astonish paralyzed him. Her eyes. Her usually amazing emerald eyes, made of every shade of green there was, were blank. Only a dark green covered her iris. No life. No sign of a presence in her gaze. “Maka…” Her name left his lips, her face showing no emotion. Her hand removed his from her shoulder and absentmindedly, she continued forward.

    Confusion ran his mind busy. He hadn’t a clue what was going on with his beloved. No idea where her legs where taking her. Not a thought of where her mind was imprisoned. No explanation which could clarify her sudden state.

    His hand entwined with hers as they headed down the road. He tried to get her to change route to their home, but she tugged her hand from his and continued forward. When their hands entwined, there was no loving squeeze or a tug at the corner of her lips. Her hand was slack and absent just like her eyes.

    His eyes fluttered with confusion when Maka took a sudden turn and entered a garden. A cute little brown house stood at the center of the garden. The two windows decorating the wall on either side of the front door where closed and dark, proved that the residents were asleep, like they should be.

    Soul had no clue of who lived in the house, and Soul knew all of Maka’s friends, and they were no acquaintances of the ones living in the house before him.  

    Without a beat of thought, Maka strolled up to the front door and tugged at the door knob. To Soul’s surprise, the door slid open and Maka entered.

    Maka had, without a doubt, just broken into someone’s house and if the council heard about it, it could end badly for her. But if he entered as well, he would be an accomplice.

    His jaw tensed and he quickly ran up the garden and into the house. Darkness enveloped him and only moonlight slipping through the cracks in the windows acted as light. Rapidly his eyes search for the red coat on his wife. “Maka.” He dared to whisper loudly. “Let’s get out of here.” As before, he received no reply.

    A creak from floorboards broke the silence. Instantly his eyes whipped toward the direction. Moonlight from a window hit the back of a red coat. Maka’s hood was now pulled up and covered her hair. A split second, light from the moon reflected on metal in her hand and blinded his eyes.

    In her hand was a knife.

    “Maka!” He exclaimed and crossed the room and leaped at her. Maka moved quicker than lighting and the knife pierced air. Fabric slashed open as he dodged the egg of the knife in the last second. Instantly his eyes were on his torn shirt on his belly. A fine red line stretched from his side to his belly button and crimson blood trickled down his belly.

    He hadn’t dodged her attack.

    “What in the world is going on?!” A deep and drowsy voice grabbed their attention. Swiftly Maka’s head whipped toward the voice of the man. Her movements were swift as a wolf. The red coat flickered at the speed and flesh splitting and a gurgle filled the dark space. A hack and a cough of the man and then his body fell down on the ground. The moonlight sipped in and reflected on the liquid seeping out of his body. The blank piece of metal sprouted out of his chest proved that the man was long gone.

    “What did you do Maka?!” Soul exclaimed and stared with wide eyes at her back. “Are you insane?!”

    Leisurely, she kneeled down toward the corpse and retrieved the knife from the slender man’s body. His flesh made disgusting sounds as she recovered it from his body.

    A high pierced scream of a woman made him jump ten feet in the air. The moon reflected on the face of a frightened woman. Her hands glued to her cheeks and her nails dug into her pale cheeks.

    Maka’s head whipped toward the woman.

    Soul’s eyes widen when Maka took a step toward the woman. Instantly he threw himself at his wife and both of them tumbled to the ground. His wound throbbed with pain as he put his knee on her wrist, pined it to the floor. He worked her fingers from the handle of the knife and threw it away.

    “S-Soul.” His eyes returned to his wife’s and to his surprise, they were clear. The corner of her lips faced down and tears poured up in her eyes. “I-I… did that?”

    He looked down toward the wound on his stomach before he gazed back in her eyes. “… yes.” He whispered.

    Instantly tears broke free from her eyes and trickled down her cheeks. “No…” She whispered. “No! This can’t be happening!” Her legs kicked the floor and she squirmed underneath him. “No! No! No!” She screamed at the top of her lungs.

    “Maka! Calm d―” he hissed in pain as he went to restrain her arms above her head.

    Her eyes widen and she breathed heavily and fast. “It’s happening!” Her breathing increased. “It’s happening!”

    The door slammed open and he saw the frightened woman stand at the doorway with men beside her. One of them stood out from the crowd.

    “Death The Kid. You got to help her.” He pleaded as he held her down to the ground. “She’s hyperventilating.”

    His golden eyes first went from the girl underneath her to the corpse just a couple of feet away from them. He turned back to the men behind him. “Arrest them. Treat his wound and question both of them what happened her.”

    Soul’s eyes widened and his grip on Maka’s wrists tightened. “You can’t take her.” His arms scooped the squirming and crying wife from the floor and held her tightly. “She needs help!”

    The men from the council ignored his please, they approached him and surrounded him before they leaped at them. Hands ripped at his bare skin and at Maka’s clothes. Her screams grew louder and her nails dug into his shoulders. “Soul!” She cried out loudly when a man’s arms linked around her waist and ripped her away from him. He hissed in pain as his wife’s nails painfully ripped his skin.

    “Maka!” He quickly got up on his feet to quickly be pushed down on the ground.

    “Sit down shoe-maker. She’s going in for murder.”

    “No!” Soul growled loudly and struggled to get up. “Maka!” Arms latched onto his naked skin and pushed his back to the ground, pinning him to the floor.

    “Soul!” His eyes caught hers as the members of the council dragged her toward the exit. Bloodshot and tears poured down from them. Terrified beyond belief. “It’s happening!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. “The curse is happening!” Then, a high pitched scream echoed through the air and sent chills down his spine and shook him to the core.

    She screamed his name.

    Soul was taken to the doctor’s house where the doctor in a robe sewed together his wound. The presence of the man who had lived only an hour ago disturbed his soul. He saw him talk, blink his eyes and breathe. Paralyzed he watched his wife, the love of his life, dug a knife into his chest. He watched the life leave his body. Soul could never unseen those eyes of his. The moon reflected in his eyes, the sclera wider than humanly possible. His eyes almost popped out of their sockets and his iris, small and fragile. Realization of his fast-approaching death clear as the sky of Death City.

    Those eyes, of realization to then slowly melt away just like his muscles.

    His eyes of empty death could never be forgotten.

    And it was Maka who made those eyes a reality in his ending life.

    Maka. The curse. When she told him about it that faithful day in the forest, he didn’t believe her. It sounded too fiction in his ears. Having her bloodline cursed and lost her father to it, it sounded like a small child’s fantasy. Curses didn’t exist. They were apocryphal and would never exist in the world they live in.

    If curses didn’t exist, what would compel his wife to wake up in the middle of the night, wander the streets absentmindedly to enter a stranger’s home and murder an innocent man? Soul couldn’t make any contact with her, she refused to come with him back home. Maka may have been a strange girl whose home was in the criminal’s forest, but she wasn’t a murderer. The time they spent together, he learned she was an affectionate person who loved playing her ocarina. She had her strange ways, but she wasn’t a murderer who would slay a man.

    If such a curse existed, it would explain her behavior, but did it exist?

    The doctor finished treating his wound, but he stayed on the table. Emotionally and mentally he was exhausted after the night’s horrified occurrence. His mind replayed the incident in his mind like a broken record.

    The door gently swung open and in walked the members of the council inside of the doctor’s room. Tsubaki’s father, the blacksmith and the doctor moved toward the corpse on the examination table beside his. The other three other men, including Death The Kid approached him.

    “Mr. Evans,” Death The Kid spoke, “your wife is very reluctant of giving us her side of the story of what happened this tragic night.”

    Soul blinked in confusion as he looked into the golden eyes. “What?”

    “Mrs. Evans refuses to inform us.” The man with golden hair and a white hat on his head strongly said. Soul recognized him as the town’s priest. “She tells she does not remember, but we all know that is not the c―”

    “She speaks the truth!” Soul exclaimed and sat up too quickly for his wounded stomach. He groaned in pain and immediately slumped down on the surface of the table. “I awoke when she left our home. I couldn’t get any contact with her! It was as if she’d been bewitched. She had no clue what she was doing.”

    “And zombies exists too.” And older man with braids in his hair snorted loudly. “He speaks nonsense just like his wife. I can see why he married her.”

    “Hey you―”

    “Calm down.” Death The Kid reassured Soul by laying his hand on his shoulder. “Don’t bother with him. Continue your story.”

    Soul filled the council member in on his side of the night. How he followed her to the stranger’s home and witnessed his wife commit murder. He consciously did leave out the part about the curse of the Albarn’s. He couldn’t have the council thinking he was a maniac too.

    The doctor and the blacksmith returned to Death The Kid’s side and informed him that the wound indeed matched the bloodied knife they found on the floor and could officially label the knife as the murder weapon.

    “Mr. Death!” Soul spoke up from the table when the council was just about to leave.

    Death The Kid turned around and faced the wounded man on the table.

    “I wish to visit my wife. Immediately.”

    The head of the council nodded approvingly. “Very well. You are free from suspicion so I see no reason why you cannot visit her as long as you leave when visitation time runs out.” And the door clicked shut behind him.

    It was more difficult that Soul originally had in mind. The simplest of task of getting up from the table proved to be painful and difficult. The stitches ripped at his skin and he carefully and clumsily got on his feet. He gripped his wounded side and headed toward the prison where Maka was being held captive.

    He arrived at the prison and as quick as his wound allowed him, he ran toward the cell block where she would be kept captive.

    “Soul!” He came to a halt and turned around. Kilik and Harvar came running toward him from across the hallways in their guard uniforms. “Dude!” he yelled loudly and stopped right in front of him. “Is it true?! Did Maka really kill that guy?! I know Maka was very odd, but I never though s―”

    “Shut the fuck up!” He bared his teeth toward his friends. “She didn’t do anything!” And he took off from his friends.

    He tackled into the doors and his eyes fast searched the cells. Empty. Empty. Empty. The city’s criminal rates were high, but the council never got a hold of any of them. Soul busted through another door and another block of cells were before him. Empty. Empty― bingo!

    “Soul!” Maka exclaimed and immediately flung toward the bars. “I don’t want to die!”

    Instantly he was up at the bars and snaked his arm around her waist through the bars. “I won’t let you.” The hug was uncomfortable with bars separating them, but it did prove to be some comfort to his wife. Her sobs reduced and her arms tightened around him.

    “I- I-“ She sniffled and a wet patch grew on his chest. “I― I don’t know what to do.”

    “We will figure something out.” Soul’s hand ran through her hair and gently soothed her as well as he could. “As long as you’re here, you won’t go and hang yourself. I promise you I will stay right here.”

    Maka shook her head as well as she could having her head squeezed through the bars. “You don’t understand. M―”

    The door Soul went through swung open and in walked Kilik. “Look, before you yell at me, I’m sorry.” His hand shoved deep in his pocket and retrieved a metal circle with plenty of keys on. “But I can make it worth to both of you for a while consider the council isn’t happy.”

    “What do you mean?” Soul growled as Kilik approached him, going through key after key for the right one.

    “What I mean is she’s most likely going to end up with a noose around her n―”

    Maka cried out loudly and her nails dug into Soul’s back.

    “Oh fuck.” Kilik sighed as he found the right key. “I’ll give you till dawn in the cell.” The key sunk into the lock and Soul entangled himself from Maka. As soon as the door opened, he threw himself at his wife and embraced her without the bars separating them. The door clicked shut behind them and Kilik left them alone.

    “I’m going to die. I’m going to die. I’m going to die!” Maka repeated over and over again, her voice muffled by his bare chest.

    “You aren’t going to die. Not from the curse or the council. I swear I will protect you.” He sunk to his knees and collected her in his arms. “You’re going to be fine.” He whispered into her ear and rocked her gently in his arms. “Everything will be fine.” He caressed her hair.

    “No.” She sniffled. “It won’t.” Tears burdened her vocal cords. “My dad ended up in this situation. Killed two people and the next night he busted out of prison and brought a guard and his previous victims with him. He hung them in the tree like decoration before the curse hung him.”

    Soul’s spine stiffened and straightened. Thoughts started to circulate inside of his mind and he grimaced. If the curse ruled ruthlessly as with her father, she barely had twenty-four hours before she would be hung from a noose in the Hang Man’s Tree. He couldn’t let that happen to her. Their journey together was beginning, not ending. It couldn’t end like this.

    “I don’t get it.” Maka inhaled and exhaled deeply at a poor attempt at calming herself down. “The curse shouldn’t kick in before I have a child or two. If it kills me tomorrow, the Albarn Legacy will end and it won’t have anyone else to torment.”

    “Is there a time limit? Maybe you’re the same age as your father when it… you know.”

    Maka shook her head against his naked chest. “No. My father lived much longer than I. I don’t know why it started it now.”

    “Then you will live longer.” His arms around her tightened and he possessively snuggled his head on top of hers. “Maybe it simply started earlier. Maybe it will wait till you grow older and then it will take you. The curse won’t let you die by the council, right? You’ll live.”

    Soul didn’t know who he was comforting. Himself or Maka. He had the gut feeling everything wasn’t okay. A sensation time was running out faster for them than he could ever imagine. Ever since that day he met her again, the clock was ticking and their days together were counted. At the beginning, he didn’t believe her story about the curse, and he wished he did. Maybe it could’ve been different. Maybe he could’ve found a solution to their problem and they would be living happily ever after. Curse-free.

    He bit his lower lip and his sharp teeth broke his lip. His spine tingled and he was afraid if he let go of his wife, he would lose her forever.

    He couldn’t let that happen.

    Sunrise came quicker than he wished for. Kilik returned and Soul had to leave Maka’s cell, but he didn’t leave her side. They embraced each other through the bars, simply holding each other and thinking of a solution to their problem. A solution to stopping an unstoppable curse that had ruled for who knew how long.

    Soul refused to accept his wife’s ongoing doom. He refused to leave her side for food, bathroom break or collect a shirt to warm his freezing body. The warm Maka provided through their embrace was enough for him. Although, when Kilik returned to check them out, he came with breakfast for them and a warm shirt for Soul since the “prison could get very cold”.

    Other guards came and wanted him to leave, but he refused. He sat there, on the floor on the other side of the bars, with his arms through the bars. He simply thought. Desperately thinking of a solution, but none would come.

    Soul stayed the entire day, hunger digging a hole in his stomach, but he never left. Occasionally he would kiss Maka and whisper his love for her.

    The door swung open to the corridor and in a line, the three council men walked inside with Death The Kid in the lead. His jet black mantle moved for every step and he came to a halt in front of them. The two men Soul had met in the doctor’s clinic were also there.

    Death The Kid cleared his throat and unrolled a scroll he held in his hands. “We, the council members, have decided on a fitting punishment for Mrs. Maka Evans.” Death The Kid started. “The evidence is clear that Mrs. Evans did indeed commit murder with a kitchen knife and she did indeed attempt at murdering the victim’s wife. The council sees Mrs. Evans as a threat to our community and therefore as punishment she will receive the death penalty―”

    Maka cried out in his arms. New tears flooded down her cheeks onto the brown shirt he borrowed from his dear friend.

    “With all due respect council members,” Soul started and hugged Maka close to him. “Maka did nothing wrong. She was completely unaware of her actions and shouldn’t be held responsible for the actions she was not aware of committing. Killing her wouldn’t solve anything. I promise you, council members, I can take care of h―”

    “Absolutely not!”

    “Mr. Barett.” Death the Kid silenced the man with the braids and returned his attention toward Soul. “Continue.”

    “Let me take care of her.” Soul ran his hand through Maka’s hair. “Let me be her protector and if she does anything illegal, hold me responsible for her actions. Her parents were absent and she lived in a forest her entire childhood. She does not know good from bad. Please, let me help her.” Soul’s eyes pierced Death The Kid’s eyes. “Please, don’t take my wife from me.”

    “You cannot grant such a request.” The man to his left spoke, the blond man with the cap. “She committed a sin and there is nothing to forgive murder. Not even God could be able to grant her forgiveness and accept her in heaven.”

    “Yes, Mr. Death. It would be wrong on granting such a request. Think about it, we will finally get one killer of the streets. It would be one less criminal to worry about.”

    “The point you are missing, Mr. Barett and Father Law, Mrs. Evans here wouldn’t be of our concern. Mrs. Evans would no longer be our problem, but her husband’s.” Death the Kid spoke as he gazed at the married couple on the ground, embracing each other through the bars. “The death penalty will be temporary called off. I would like to discuss this new solution to the murder case with the rest of the council.”

    Soul exhaled and his nails dug into his wife’s waist. “Thank you Mr. Death!” It wasn’t called off, but it was temporarily postponed. That would give them enough time to figure something out on the council front and then come up with something to prevent the curse.

    Death The Kid left the corridor with Mr. Barett and Father Law following him suit, gawking at Death The Kid and at Maka, utterly confused at the head of the council’s decision.

    Night came and to Maka and Soul’s relief, Kilik brought them hot soup to enjoy. The prison grew colder and colder. Maka had offered her red coat to her husband, but he refused to accept it. He refused having his wife freezing. Maka and Soul grew tired, their embrace loosened and they started changing positions to find a comfortable position to rest in. They ended up sleeping on the floor, on either side of the bars, holding each other’s hands.

    His wife quickly fell asleep, but Soul had trouble sleeping. His body was calling for relaxation, but he would have none of it. Barely a day had gone by since his wife committed murder, or the curse committed murder, and if the curse had the same pattern as her father’s death, this would be her last night alive. She wouldn’t see the sunrise.

    If he could prevent her death by staying up, guarding her from the curse, he would do so.

    Soon, as the moon gazed through the bars on her window, his eyes quickly turned to sandpaper. Last night he didn’t get a full night sleep and that only made his task at staying awake more difficult than it already was. Even the cold stone floor he laid on was inviting and comfortable to sleep on. As soon as his eyelids were half-closed, he would slap his cheeks a few times to regain some consciousness.

    Soul wasn’t a God or powerful man. No, as a little boy he enjoyed sleeping outside in the green grass or on a branch surrounded with leaves and the sunlight sipping through beautifully. He enjoyed sleeping on his piano when he was supposed to practice. Sleep had been his best friend for many years, even as a married man, he enjoyed sleep.

    He was human. And humans had needs. He didn’t even notice it himself when sleep crawled onto him and peacefully brought him into the arms of dreams.

    In his dreams, he dreamt about his everyday life. How he enjoyed making shoes for his customers. To swing a hammer and create beautiful products with his hands instead of producing music as his parents had wanted him to do. He loved his job and his earning wasn’t bad. He was proud for living in the cute house with the love of his life. He was proud over the fact he had income to buy his wife what she desired since she didn’t desire that expensive items. Soul was very proud over the fact he could buy her cooking tools and other kitchen wares she wished for since she loved cooking. In his dream, he could smell her creation from within the kitchen. A delicious vegetable soup with maybe chicken from the local farm.

    It was nice. Kissing his wife and eating her food to then cuddle up on their shared bed. There was nothing he loved more than being around his precious wife.

    Soul was startled awake when bricks flew through the air and dust covered the small cell of Maka’s.

    His heart jumped in his throat as his eyes widened. “MAKA!” He exclaimed and noticed he was no longer holding her hand. Dust caught in his throat and he coughed violently. The moon penetrated the clouds of dust and when it finally laid down, his eyes almost popped out from his skull. The wall was busted open. Bricks lay scattered outside of the large hole in the wall. His beloved was nowhere to be seen.

    Did Maka do this?

    Instantly Soul shook his head as he jumped up on his feet.

    No. It was the curse which did it.

    Soul ran out of the corridor and through the other blocks of prisons. Guards started to run and to his relief, they didn’t bother with him. He quickly made it outside and whipped his head from right to left, searching for his wife’s familiar red coat. It was nowhere in sight.

    He didn’t need to see her to know where the curse would take her.

    With his heart in his throat, he ran. Ran to the forest with Hung Man’s Tree as a goal. His eyes teared up as his hands trembled with fear. Fear for his wife’s safety. He refused to let her never see the sunrise again. He got to save her. He had to take her away from the tree even if that was the last thing he did.

    His jaw tightened when he threw himself into the forest. The branches from the trees and bushes ripped at his pants and shirt, but he didn’t care. The branches could cut him open and he wouldn’t care. Only Maka was on his mind. Nothing else.

    He leaped out of the forest into the dead meadow and a loud gasped escaped his throat.

    The moon was twice its normal size and it gazed superiorly over the tree. A body was already hung from the tree and judging from the size, Soul was relieved to come to the conclusion it was too large to be his wife’s corpse. His eyes then landed on the shadow that stood on a branch, without a rope around its neck. Soul didn’t even have to guess who it was.

    “MAKA!” He roared loudly and ran toward the tree. “Don’t let the curse control you!” His breathing was heavy and fatigue weight his body. “Don’t you dare let it control your destiny! You aren’t supposed to die here!” Soul’s body collided with the trunk of the tree and his nails dug into the bark. His feet desperately kicked at the bark in order to climb up to his love.

    His eyes desperately kept an eye on Maka and he was relieved when she simply stood there, staring off into the distant with her hands entwined.

    “Maka.” He breathed out in relief when he reached the branch and stood up. “Let’s go home.” He took a step toward her and removed one of her hands to lace their fingers together. “Come on. Can you climb down the tree?”

    Maka didn’t answer or respond to his words. Her eyes vacantly stayed locked at the horizon.

    The curse still had its claws in her to his disappointment.

    “Come on Maka.” He whispered soothingly and tugged at her hand. She wouldn’t budge. He cocked his eyebrow and he pulled at her hand again. Her feet wouldn’t move. “Maka?” He released her hand and carefully kneeled down on the branch. His hands caged her right ankle and he tugged at it. It absolutely under any circumstances would not budge.

    Soul immediately jumped up, startled out of his mind when and object touched his head. He straightened his body and he saw Maka with a noose in her hands.

    Her intention was to hang him.

    “Maka.” He backpedalled when she made a move to put it over his head. “You don’t want to do t―” His words were lost. The moon casted light on half her face. Her left side lit up creepily and the trail of tears glistered brightly.

    She was there. She was present.

    He could save her.

    “I know you’re there.” He cupped her face and wiped away the tears from her cheeks. “I love you Maka and I know you love me too. You wouldn’t want it to end this way.”

    He eyes stared into his. As blank as before. But the tears continuously flowing down her cheeks were proof enough that she was still there, fighting to break free. He needed to give her momentum, strength to break free and forever to be his.

    Her hands continued to move. The sensation of the old rope scratching his cheeks before it settled around his neck was eerie and frightening. He hated it. He wanted to remove his hands from his wife and remove it immediately, but this could be his only chance to get her back.

    “Maka.” He bit his lower lip and his tears broke free from his eyes and trickled down his cheeks. “You don’t want this. You don’t want this.” He repeated as her hands tightened the rope behind his head. “I know you’re there. You wouldn’t want to kill your husband, the one you love, would you?”

    She didn’t respond. Instead more tears trickled down her cheeks and shades of green started to appear in her eyes.

    It was working.

    “We can’t end like this.” His hands stayed on her cheeks and desperately wiping away her tears. His forehead came to rest on hers and his tears dripped down from his cheeks. “We can’t end. Don’t let this stupid curse control our lives. Don’t let it.” He tilted his head and their lips connected. To his disappointment, she didn’t respond. He simply pressed his lips against hers and touched her face with his hands.

    Her hands released the knot on the rope and slowly slide to his shoulders and down his chest.

    A sob wracked against his lips and she sniffled.

    Slowly he pulled away from her and was pleasantly surprised when her eyes were glistering with every shade of green there was. Her body trembled with sobs and snot escaped her nose.

    A soft smile stretched on his face. “Maka.”

    “S―” her hands moved on their own and pushed him, “―OUUUUUL!” She cried out loudly and her voice drowned out bone snapping. She cried out loudly in pain from her now broken heart. The sound of rope stretching and swaying broke the little she had left of herself. The threads of the curse controlled her limbs like a mannequin. Her hands moved on their own toward the rope she had pointed out that fateful day, the one her life would end in.

    Tears rolled down her cheeks like waterfalls as the curse moved her hands and applied the rope around her neck.

    She didn’t even care anymore. She had nothing to live for. The haunted presence of what she had done weight down her broken heart and there was nothing that could save her.

    Her feet left the branch and her cries stopped. The two lovers’ tears kept trickling down their cheeks and landed on the cursed soil.

    The curse always got what it wanted. For eons it demanded three sacrifices. And Maka Albarn, the last victim of the curse, was no exception. Three out of four ropes were occupied, but the curse harbored four lives.