Prologue
I work as a matchmaker.
Ever since I was a child, I can see strings, strings that connect us to other people. Strings can take a variety of colors and can change at any time, depending on your feelings towards other people.
When you like a person and they become your friends, the string that connects you both is white. When you start to feel dislike, irritated, annoyed, betrayed, jealous, envy, lust, hurt or other negative emotions, the color starts to change. From white, it eventually converts its color to black. In other words, strings change their colors because what you feel for others changes.
You might be asking, red strings are for the one true love, right?
The right term for it is ‘fated partner’ or ‘predestined partner’ but can never be called ‘one true love’. People’s hearts can change you know. Red can turn into black. Just like how a couple who loves each other, but after a few years, can loathe each other.
But the red string of fate, the one that connects in your pinky, is not the only red string we have. There can be 3 or more connected in your heart to other people. I call them ‘fleeting love’. A person you fell in love but never ended up with.
This ability has been passed on to my family for generations. Most of my female ancestors don’t have a fated partner, so they end up growing old alone. But all of them have someone they love. And they always die. Always. I remember my Aunt, who possesses the same ability as me said.
" You’d rather wish you didn’t fall in love with someone, Alice. It will only kill you... To watch that person die in front of you... Believe me I know. ”
I believe her. I fell in love. And he died. That’s why I swear I will never love someone again. An ability we have. A great responsibility we bear. And a curse to live with. I never asked for this.
My name is Alice Jade Martinez. I’m 18. And this is my story.
I work as a detective.
I assist the police in putting criminals behind bars. I’ve handled cases that range from murders, robberies, bombings, serial killings, and others. People call me great for having these talents. But in fact, I don’t care.
I don’t care about murders. I don’t care if criminals were apprehended or not. I don’t care if my stepfather used my talent for his own benefit. Nor I care for my stepbrother taking credits for my work. None of these matters to me.
All beings stick with each other for survival. As much as I hate it, if I want power, I must conform to the ways of this foolish, idiotic, world.
I can’t understand why women put artificial substance called makeup on their face just to look appealing. Nor I understand men drowning themselves to smoke, alcohol, drugs, and a bunch of crappy online games just to escape reality.
Really, this world is full of fools who’ll do anything to get other people’s attention, to escape reality, to possess everything, and to give out their hearts to those who will surely break it.
No matter how much they sacrifice to obtain what they want, in the end, we all die not bringing a single penny.
It’s as stupid as chasing the wind.
But to not feel emotions. Not knowing what it’s like to ‘want something’ nor possessing any desire to ‘do something’. To not feel anything, either joy, pain, sadness, anger, fear, greed, and lust. To think that I lack the basic emotions that define and separate us from other species. Maybe I’m not ‘human’ after all.
I just need something to fill the deep, black hole in my heart. The bottomless pit inside me is so hollow it’s sucking me dry.
For years, nothing can satisfy the emptiness I feel. Does such a thing exist? If so, how do I find it? Will it make me feel a little bit ‘human’ like the others? If I continue doing this type of work, will it lead me to that ‘something’ someday?
My name is Keith Sky Sinclair. I’m 17. And this is my story.
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Where does a story truly begin?
Is it when you meet your fateful encounter? Or when the love you sought for years, finally became mutual? Or that moment when the past broke your heart and the future came along to mend it? Or when you’re special someone asks your hand in marriage?
Or maybe it can start at...
When you realize, the person you love the most already belongs to someone else? Or when the love you thought will last forever, is just an illusion you put up because of your expectations. Or when that pretentious miracle of someone, coming along your way, promising to fix your heart with his love, only to tear it apart, leaving you all alone, and much broken than before. Or worse, the person that took your heart and became your everything, doesn’t belong in this world anymore. And no matter what you do, and where you go, his presence is everywhere. Torturing you with his memories, his traces that felt so real, and the state of loss he left.
You may think these circumstances are the climax or the end of your life. But it’s just the beginning. Of a new chapter, of a new journey. With each episode controlled by an unknown invisible force called ‘fate’.
And this story is one of those circumstances led by fate. Two people, connected by a bond called ‘red string of fate’ where one end lost its destination and was bent out of shape again and again. Another end became all twisted and stuck, unable to entangle. But no matter how much this ‘bond’ is stretched, tested, contorted, and pulled beyond limits, it never breaks. Even in death.
This story is about a matchmaker who can’t fall in love and a detective who can’t feel anything.
