The Lost Girls || Bbangsaz

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Hanni took the bus to school, and I waited until she made it on safely before running back to the apartment. I flung open the front door with so much force, the knob punched a hole in the wall. "I found Hyein. Or at least, I know where she'll be today."

Dani looked up from her notes. "Excellent. We've run into problems with my heirloom. Haerin is easy to get but much more unpleasant, so we could use some good news."

"What problems?" We didn't need problems. We had enough problems just trying to track down my heirloom. With only a few weeks to collect everything we needed, we couldn't afford to have any more setbacks.

"It's in a safe-deposit box. I paid for a hundred years, at First National up the road. My grandmother's silver combs were the most valuable thing I owned. It made sense at the time, but they won't let me in without ID, even if I have the key."

"ID is a thing banks usually require."

"Well, that wasn't a thing they required in 1954." Dani stacked her notes with a huff.

"Believe me, if I'd known how vital those combs were going to be, I never would've put them in that box. We can't risk them thinking I'm dead, so we'll have to find another way in."

"Are you saying we have to break into a bank vault? Before the full moon?"

"Yes." Dani used her most prim-and-proper-lady voice, and I wanted to scream into the void. The rolling dumpster fire just kept picking up speed.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, where a headache would surely be forming if I were still capable of getting headaches. "And Haerin's heirloom?"

"That's not my story to tell." Dani glanced at Haerin as she came out of the bedroom. "I'm going to wash up. The two of you should talk."

"I heard you found Hyein. Good work" Haerin took a seat on the couch, her black-cherry scent trailing in her wake. "I assume Dani told you the complications with her heirloom."

"She did." I hesitated on my next question. Haerin struck me as more of a private person. Dani had been warm and open from the start, but Haerin didn't share anything of herself unless she got something in return. "She also told me yours will be unpleasant but didn't say why."

"I appreciate her trying to protect me, but I'm not that sensitive about it." Haerin twirled the chain around her neck, which had a finger bone hanging from it. "It was a long time ago."

When she didn't say anything else, I pushed a little more. "What is your heirloom?"

"A glass-and-silver figure of a horse, made for me by my younger sister, Bae. She was the sun to my clouds." The ghost of a smile touched her lips, but sadness lingered there. "We always thought her hobby fitting, seeing as how she was also fragile. Born small and never really quite caught up. She died shortly after I'd been turned."

"I'm sorry." The universal empty words to give someone when you weren't quite sure what else to say. Even though her sister would still be dead, even if she lived a full life, losing someone you cared about had to hurt. Not that I was overly familiar with those feelings. "Did you get a chance to say goodbye?"

"In my own way" When I didn't say anything, she glanced at me like she wasn't sure if she wanted to go on. I had a feeling no matter how much she told me today, she'd still keep the more personal details to herself. "We hadn't left town yet when she caught a bad cold that turned into pneumonia. I couldn't face my family after what I'd become, so I snuck into the funeral home after dark to pay my respects. She was my heart. The person I thought of as I was dying. So, I placed my heirloom inside her coffin."