Where The Melody Remembers Love

"You're so dead!" he yelled.

He slammed on the brakes. The tires skidded across the rain-soaked street before the car slammed into the roadside barrier.

I took the chance to open the door and bolt into the rain. His furious yells echoed behind me.

The rain and my tears blurred my vision as I stumbled through three blocks, until the flashing red-and-blue police lights came into view.

"Officer, I want to make a report…"

Before I could finish, I felt a sharp pain from the back of my neck.

The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Jenny Young standing there, bloodied wrench in hand. She had a cold and sinister smile.

"Sorry, Nora," her voice was sinister, "but your heart is mine."

…

The scent of disinfectant hurt my nostrils.

I found myself lying on an operating table when I opened my eyes. My wrists were strapped with leather restraints.

The overhead light blazed on me.

"Are you awake?"

I heard her voice from behind me. Jenny wore pale blue scrubs, she had a syringe in her hand.

"I was going to wait until you signed before giving you anesthesia, but you just wouldn't behave," she said.

I kept struggling, and my face was pale as panic surged through me.

"Where's Chance? He promised I could see my parents!" I yelled.

"Oh, him?"

Jenny pushed the syringe into the IV line, her smile laced with mockery.

"He's downstairs, saying goodbye to your parents' bodies," she said.

I froze.

"What did you say?" I asked.

The door swung open.

Chance stepped inside, his white shirt was splattered with dark red stains, and his blood-streaked phone clutched in his hand. There was a photo on his phone screen of my parents lying lifelessly in a pool of blood.

"They tried to run. The debt collectors beat them to death," he explained, tone so casual as if he were talking about the weather.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure they have a fine headstone after you donate your heart to Jenny," he said.

The world went black for a moment, and I nearly passed out.

"Let's begin," said Jenny.

She put on surgical gloves, and tapped against the scar beneath my collarbone.

"I heard this scar came from a surgery to save Chance. How touching, but this heart will belong to me now," she said.

Pain ripped through my chest when I woke up again.

"Nora?"

I could hear his voice from my bedside, softer than I had heard in years.

"The doctor says a mechanical heart takes time to adjust to, that's why it hurts. Your life is not in any danger, so don't worry," he said.

I turned my head to see him in an immaculate suit. His tie had swapped for the navy blue one I had given him.

His fingers brushed the back of my hand as if we were still the loving couple from eight years ago.

"Where are my parents?" I asked.

Whatever patience and tenderness I had been clinging to were gone the moment I heard my parents were dead.

He hesitated.

"The funeral is over. I bought the highest-grade grave plot for them…" he said.

"So they are dead?" I asked.

I sat up quickly, the searing pain from the mechanical heart shot from my chest to my limbs.

A flicker of panic crossed his eyes.

"I didn't mean for it to happen. I didn't think they would try to run after hearing about your transplant," he replied.

Perhaps he did not intend to kill them, but they were dead all the same.

"Don't get worked up. Your heart…" he said.

He tried to press me back down, but I shoved him off.

The red glow from the monitor reflected on his face, and I suddenly laughed.

"Chance Hart, do you think you can erase everything you've done by giving me a new heart?" I sneered.

His lips pressed tightly as he reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a check.

"Jenny's doing much better now," he said.