Beating hearts

Chapter 36

A single tear frozen to her face, she wasn't aware it had snuck its way out of the crevice of her eye and down her cheek, she wanted to feel more, she knows she should, normally she would have cried a river of condescending labyrinth of emotions by now.
Her feelings had become numb, still there, but like the itch of a phantom limb.

The snow whispers in her ear as the wind blew past, she made her way along the narrow tree path, entering the spiked gates to the slumbering skeleton graveyard, tombstones lined up on bye one, the head rest that condemns the chest of what was. She stared blankly at her sisters and mothers' graves, knowing she should have been placed right beside them in her own.
"Why don't I feel for them anymore?" She asks herself, a pinch and shadowy look on her face, it was true, she didn't feel sorry or guilty for them anymore, she didn't yearn for their presence, or miss them so much that her heart would physically ache at the thought of them, she felt no urge to weep at the sight of their graves. No not at all. She envied them.

Her head quickly lifts, turning like a deer caught in head lights, drumming in her ears, pounding and corrupting her brain. Fury, hatred, and anger, slowly boiling within poisoning her blood and flooding her veins. Through the same spiked gates as Ara entered, came another. A middle-aged man holding an assortment of flowers, he approachs a tall tombstone,

Kasey Evans
1988 - 2017
Beloved daughter, friend, and wife.
Forever in our hearts.

The man wipes a tear away with the sleeve of his long brown coat and places the flowers at the top of the women's tombstone.
He then turns his head toward Ara at the feeling of being watched. He kindly waves at her and put his attention back on his departed wife's grave. The pounding in Aras head wouldn't stop, it was like a parasite swirling around in her brain, her body itched, and swelled. Her hands morphed into a fist and her nails dug sharply in her palms. Dis colored blood pouring to the ground, she couldn't take it anymore. She darts for the man, standing in front of him within seconds, he staggers with confusion.

"I'm sorry," Ara says, only with slight remorse.

Without much of an effort she flings her hand through the man's chest and rips out his heart, she sighs in relief, it was only then that it stopped, the pounding and itching melted away, she smiled in relief, before disappearing from the graveyard, simply vanishing from site and appearing in the same musty cabin that she regained her life in. She still held an innocent man's heart in her hand, as she looks around confused.

 
"What just happened?" She says aloud.

"You just killed a man," Sita answers appearing from the shadows of her home.

She smiles, clapping her hands together at the site of the human organ bleeding in Aras hand.

"I'm aware of that, I mean what am I doing here?"

Sita rolls her eyes "No point of telling you again my dear, because every time you leave this cabin you instantly forget about me, and our little arrangement. That way you can't go off spilling my secrets to everyone."

"Our arrangement?"

"Yes, you kill for me, blah, blah, blah, I gain more power and beauty blah, blah, blah you don't remember, and repeat." The witch says with a smirk.

"What do I get out of it then?"

"You get to live again my dear, well somewhat."

"Doesn't seem like a fair deal." Ara says with no amusement.

"Ohh, it's not," Sita cackles.

Ara looks at the heart still so warm, she felt a slight strife of sadness comorse through her, "So will I forget about killing him?"

Sita laughs. ,"well unlike that man, I'm not heartless," she says with every pun attended. "of course, my heart is dark and callous. But it's still in my chest." She cackles again "you won't remember killing that man, not because I've decided to show kindness. But because of that annoying little tick of humanity inside you, might one day eat away at your guilt and make you will feel obligated to turn yourself in." Sita takes the heart from Ara and puts it in a grimy jar.

"I don't want this', Ara says quietly.

"Yeah well, does anyone ever really get what they want in life? Except me." She laughs again. "Besides your boyfriend gave me his permission to revive you, which was sighing your soul over to me. So, you don't get to have a say in the matter.

Ara shakes her head. "But I didn't ask for this, I didn't give anyone permission to my soul,"

"Well, you see, there are tricks and loopholes to almost everything. You gave your heart and soul to the boy, and he gave you his, making you one, in the laws of witchcraftery,"

Ara turns her back away from the witch.

Sita rolls her eyes, "stop pouting and be grateful that you have your life back, you just occasionally haft to murder people, and forget where you've been all day." she smirks once more.

"But I won't be able to be around Zac without wanting to rip his heart out."

"Incorrect, his heart is the only exception to the curse, because it is tied to my spell,"

"Why is he tied to the spell?"

"Okay my little puppet," Sita says ignoring Ara, taking the grimy jar back in her hands. "The next time you see me I will be vibrant." She waves her wrinkly hand swiftly and in a flash Ara disappears.