Jar of Hearts [On Hold]

Prologue

Colbie

Colbie held her hand out the window, despite the biting cld. She wiggled her fingers, feeling the cold night air flow around them. She smiled to herself. Despite the cold, she felt warm and light. She and Casey had just had an amazing night at the movies. They had watched one of those corny chick-flicks that had, had them stifling groans at the sappy parts. Then he had held her hand as they walked out to the car.

Now he parked his yellow truck on the curb down the street from her house and rolled the windows up. Her heart fluttered happily as he pulled her next to him. He smelled so good; like movie theater popcorn and the way he always smelled-like the outside after it rained, her favorite scent. She looked up at him and saw his silver-gray eyes looking back. She loved those eyes. Then he pressed his lips against hers, softly at first, then more roughly. One of his hands snaked around her back and held her to him; the other was on her face, his fingers tangling in her hair. She shifted so that she was sitting in his lap, facing him, and wrapped her arms around his neck. The air was hot, the cold outside felt like it was miles away. Colbie's heart was beating fast and she could feel the butterflies fluttering in her stomach. This was how she always felt when she kissed Casey. She had become addicted to this feeling.

His tongue traced the ridge between her lips, urging them open. She granted him entrance and his tongue collided with hers, moving with and against it. She thought her heart might explode. Then he took his tongue back but held her mouth open against his. They just sat there, breathing hard. Then something weird happened.

Casey inhaled. But it seemed to pull the air out of her lungs. Instead of it being hot and ragged the way the rest of her breathing was, this air was cold. Ice cold. The breath dragged upward, but instead of coming from her lungs, she felt it coming from her entire being. Her fingers and toes lost feeling as the cold began to burn its way through her. Her body was screaming, he head swimming with agony. But no sound escaped her lips.

Suddenly, a memory broke through the curtain of pain shrouding her mind.

She was nine years old, sitting in her grandpa's lap. He smelled of tobacco and fish, which should have been gross, but somehow smelled nice. She was lying on his chest and he was telling her stories; stories of the Lonely, and of the evil creatures who stole their hearts.

"Once there was a beautiful girl," he said, his voice was deep and gruff, lulling her to sleep, "almost as beautiful as you. She was smart, and pretty, and well loved by so many. One day, this young man appeared. He was handsome and charming. He quickly won the girl's heart. Her mother adored him, her father thought he was a good man, but her grandfather warned her, 'Stay away from the Heart Stealer, the one who thirsts for Hearts.'

But he was good and he was charming. So, ignoring her old grandfather's warning, she went out with the young man. He took her to dinner, and for a walk in the park, and she began to think her old grandfather was crazy. After a few months, late one night, he walked her home from one of the local tea shops. On the front porch of her parent's home, he kissed her. But this was no ordinary kiss, with this kiss he stole her Heart. And as fire as cold as the snow burned through her veins, she remembered her old grandfather's warning, 'stay away from the Heart Stealer, the one who thirsts for Hearts.' And as she slowly slipped off into a deep and dark sleep, she felt a wave of the deepest regret she would ever feel that she had not listened. It was the last time she would ever feel anything at all. For when her Heart was stolen, she became one of the Lonely, who wandered the earth with no feeling and no purpose. Searching for the Heart she lost, that would never again be hers."

Then her grandfather had looked down at her, and seeing the silent tears running down her cheeks, he wiped them away. "That was such a sad story, grandpa.... Why would he steal her Heart? And why would he leave her all alone?"

"It's what they do, my beautiful little girl. They are the Corda Sitis, the Heart Thirst, those who thirst for Hearts. Their souls are cold and they crave the warmth of human Hearts. Promise me, Colbie, that you will stay away from the Heart Stealers?"

"I promise, grandpa." She yawned and drifted off to sleep on his chest, to dream of charming young men and the Lonely Ones, searching for their Hearts.

As she grew older, she had thought her grandpa's stories were silly, but now she saw. She felt her own stupidity at becoming the poor, stupid girl in the story. Casey was a Corda Sitis, and he was stealing her Heart. She knew it. And as the cold agony slowly began receding, the breath that felt like a cold slug being pulled from her throat, making it impossible to breathe, her Heart, began to pass through her lips. She wanted to pull it back. To swallow it and then kill the horrible creature who was taking it from her. He was no longer Casey, the handsome boy from her Chemistry class, he was a monster.

As her Heart touched his lips, she felt it turn brilliantly warm; the lovely, blessed heat melted away the pain. A blinding light filled her eyes through her eyelids, and she began to feel sleepy and calm, too calm. With all the emotion that she had left, she felt a deadly swell of anger rip its way through her. She felt a scream tear through her lips, and a sharp sting against her palm followed by a cry from Casey that infuriated her even more. But she was too far gone. There was nothing she could do; her body was beyond her control, slipping into the darkness that threatened to take her. She felt the last of the now warm breath, her Heart, slip through her lips and into Casey's, taking her fury with it. Suddenly, she felt nothing. The pain, the hurt, the anger, all vanished. She knew what had happened. But she felt...nothing.

Her eyes fluttered open once, and she saw Casey's smiling face. She absently noted that his eyes seemed to be a lighter shade, much more bright and silver than gray now. She felt the sweat dripping down her forehead and felt Casey's hand as he wiped it out of her face. She didn't feel anything at his touch. No fluttery happy feeling like she used to have, no anger, not even any sadness. She didn't feel anything. Then she felt her eyes droop, her body felt heavy and sluggish as she gave up and slipped into the darkness.