Her eyes landed on me.
And for a moment, the world tilted.
She was beautiful. Too much so. The kind of beauty that hurt to look at for long.
Her smile reached her eyes, but something behind it was hollow.
"What's happening?" I whispered.
The woman tilted her head, as if she'd heard that question a thousand times before. "The system wants a price, love. Emotion for existence. It's the first rule of balance."
My throat felt dry. "Emotion?"
"Every soul drags too much weight when it enters," she said, gliding her fingers across a row of jars. "You must trade one. Just one… for now. It's how you survive."
Her nails tapped one of the jars lightly. Inside it, something glowed soft, golden and trembling.
"Love," she said. "Warm and foolish. Painful when broken, but powerful when kept. You can give it up and never ache again."
My chest tightened. My fiancé's face flickered in my mind. His laughter. His hands. The betrayal I never saw coming.
She must've seen it in my expression, because her smile widened. "Ah. You've already been burned by it. Easy trade, then."
I took a step back, shaking my head. "No."
"Then fear?" she pressed. "Without fear, you'll fight better. You'll stop trembling at the sight of death."
Her voice dropped lower, almost whispering. "Or perhaps guilt. It's the one that rots people fastest."
The timer in front of me flashed:
05:27
Theo's voice came back to me "Don't bleed".
Maybe this was what he meant. Losing something essential, piece by piece, until you forgot what being human felt like.
"I don't want to lose anything," I said quietly.
The woman's eyes softened almost in pity. "Then you'll lose everything."
I looked around. Others were already trading. A boy not much older than me reached across a stall, and his laughter… real, bright laughter more like Joy escaped from his mouth like smoke. The jar in front of him lit up as the vendor sealed it away.
He looked empty afterward. Peaceful, but empty.
The bell rang again.
02:00
Panic coiled inside me.
"What happens if I don't trade?" I asked.
The vendor smiled sadly. "You dissolve."
Something inside me broke at that word. Not death but dissolution. A slow, painful erasure.
The woman's words blurred in and out. Emotion for existence.
It sounded simple.
But my chest was splitting open, and nothing felt simple anymore.
The fog pressed in like a hand around my throat. All around me, people were trading pieces of themselves-laughter, fear, anger, love… stuffing them into jars that glowed like stolen souls.
I couldn't move. Couldn't think past the ache in my ribs or the sound of my pulse hammering in my ears.
"Choose," the woman urged softly. "You're running out of time."
Her voice felt far away.
Choose.
As if I hadn't already made a thousand wrong choices before this one.
I thought of him, Ethan.
His back, arched against my sister's skin. His voice, whispering words that used to belong to me.
My hands trembled. I could still feel the engagement ring that wasn't on my finger anymore, like my body hadn't accepted the loss yet.
If I gave up love, I'd never feel this pain again. But what would that make me? A hollow thing that doesn't even remember what warmth felt like?
No. Not love.
Fear?
Fear had always kept me alive in the small ways.
Locking the door twice. Walking faster when the streets went dark.
Without fear, maybe I'd stop caring about staying alive at all.
Not that either.
Then guilt.
The word burned.
Because somewhere, beneath all the anger, I still blamed myself for staying too long, for not seeing it sooner, for running instead of screaming.
If I gave that up, maybe I could finally breathe.
But guilt was proof that I still felt. Proof that I wasn't completely gone.
That left only one.
Hope.
I laughed then quietly, bitterly. The sound cracked like glass in my throat.
Hope. The most dangerous lie I'd ever loved.
It had dressed itself as forgiveness when I should've walked away.
It had whispered "maybe tomorrow will be different" when tomorrow only brought deeper wounds.
It had made me believe in people who didn't deserve belief.
Hope had ruined me more than love ever could.
The jar before me began to hum, golden light pulsing faintly.
I thought of the bridge, of the rain, of the feeling that everything ended too soon.
And for some reason, hope was the one that hurt the most to hold onto.
"I'll trade…" My voice shook. "Hope."
The woman's smile faltered for the first time. "Are you certain, dear?"
"Yes."
She nodded once and reached forward. The jar between us opened, pulling something warm and light from my chest like sunlight leaving a room.
When it was done, I couldn't cry.
Couldn't imagine a future. Couldn't even picture what "better" looked like.
But I could breathe.
The timer vanished.
The bell stopped.
And the woman whispered, "Welcome, player. You survived your first trade."
From the crowd, Theo appeared again… watching me with that same unreadable calm.
He didn't look surprised. Just… sad
For a while, he said nothing. The others were dispersing into the crimson mist, heading toward alleys lit by ghostly lanterns. Some looked sure of their path, others stumbled, already fading.
Theo kept his distance, his hands tucked into his pockets, gaze flicking briefly to the vendor who'd taken my emotion. Then to me.
"You did well," he said finally, voice low and even. "You didn't panic. That's more than most first-timers can say."
I wanted to ask what that meant, but my throat felt dry, and my chest—
Empty.
Like something warm had been scooped out.
Theo nodded once, as if confirming his own thoughts. "Find somewhere to rest. You'll need it for tomorrow."
He turned to leave.
"Wait—" My voice cracked before I could stop it. He paused, not looking back. "Please. I… I don't know where to stay."
The silence between us stretched, long enough for the fog to curl around his shoulders like smoke.
For a moment, I thought he'd just walk away. He looked like the kind of man who always did.
But then he exhaled softly, his head tilting the slightest bit. "You shouldn't talk to strangers here," he muttered.
"I don't have anyone else," I whispered.
He turned then. The faint red light caught in his eyes, and for the first time, I saw something human there…something restrained, buried deep.
Theo hesitated. Then he said, almost reluctantly, "Come."
He didn't wait to see if I followed. Just started walking… long, even strides that made me jog to keep up. The streets around us were twisted, unfamiliar, shifting as we moved through them.
The buildings leaned close, whispering through cracks in the brick. The air smelled faintly of ash and metal.
We stopped at a narrow door hidden between two broken walls. Theo pushed it open with his shoulder. Inside, the air was still, quiet. A single cot sat in the corner.
"This will do," he said. "Don't touch anything that breathes."
I blinked. "What?"
He didn't elaborate. Just glanced once around the room, then stepped back toward the door.
"The next trade starts at dawn," he said. "Be awake."
He was almost gone when I found the courage to speak again. "Theo…"
He paused.
"What did you trade?" I asked quietly.
He looked over his shoulder, eyes shadowed under the dim light. "Enough," he said simply.
Then he closed the door behind him.
The silence that followed felt alive… pressing close, heavy with all the things I couldn't feel anymore.