Vanishment

The Hearts were mute, but they were powerful. They had identical facial features—nothing that differentiated them from each other except their bodies. Unlike typical guards, they didn’t have to carry around bulky weapons. Their powers were contained in their unusual heart-shaped heads. They were known for being able to cause people pain and control their physical functions, as well as uncommon cases of them making people totally Vanish into thin air.

____

“Is that it?!” Ruda asked with anticipation. Her eyes wide and fixated upon the small jewel resting on the plush, velvet pillow. She had been waiting her whole life for this moment.

“That’s it, Pumpkin.” Her father responded with admiration in his voice, but Ruda felt him tense up beside her. He was keeping up an unwavering appearance.

Ruda sucked in air. The way the heart-shaped locket had been displayed with its thin, gold chain extending from its body in a straight, rigid line, reminded her of a flower; more precisely, the wild poppy flower buds she tended at work, but this one was heart-shaped and made from less organic material, though it appeared just as delicate.

The exhibit was a once-a-year affair in which every child who’d attained the age of eleven before or during this holy week was permitted entry into the gallery with a family member to view the Holy Heart Locket up close. It was, of course, mandatory, but it still remained an honour. Ruda’s viewing was a unique mixture of anticipation and solemn curiosity as this very locket had been the cause of her older brother’s Vanishment two years prior. Her parents had removed all traces of Rudi from their homes and had never spoken of him again. But, her mother’s eyes still carried a deep-set sadness that had never quite dissipated.

She took her allotted five minutes to recreate a mental image of the Locket with all its minute details so that she could adequately describe it to her best friend later that afternoon at work—she was 3 months younger and thus, not permitted entry this year. She desperately wanted to reach out and touch it, to experience what its delicate texture truly felt like, but she was far too educated on the protocols to be foolish enough to do such a thing. She stole a glance in her peripheral of the guard—a “Heart”—near the door she’d entered from. It stood like a statue, but Ruda knew it was watching her every move. The Hearts had increased security in the gallery ten-fold since the debacle two years ago when her older brother, Rudi, had stolen the Holy Heart Locket and hidden in the woods not far from their home. She knew they were watching her and her father even more closely than they would watch anyone else who would enter that gallery that week. Should she attempt such a foolish and forbidden feat as touching it, she would surely be Vanished before she’d even gotten to.

A loud, sharp beep from the gallery’s speakers signalled her time was up. Her father took her hand and together they walked swiftly to the exit, protected by another guard, with its identifiable heart-shaped face that they all possessed. The Hearts had a schedule to keep, down to the last second, and they didn’t like to be kept waiting.

***

Ruda clamped her hands over her ears as her best friend’s squeal reverberated through her body. It was an hour after she’d come from the gallery and she had just finished describing every detail of the locket to Lily that she could recall. But today, Ruda didn’t share Lily’s full excitement as her stomach was filled with anxiety for two reasons.

“SHH!” She spittled, “a Heart might pass! Anxiety reason number one.

“Sorry!” Lily apologized in a hushed voice. She continued in a lower tone this time. “Do you have any idea what could be inside it now that you’ve seen it up close?”

“No,” Ruda replied sharply.

Before today, she had shared her friend’s desperate curiosity over what could possibly be in that locket that gave the Hearts their powers. Today, she still didn’t know the answer to exactly what was inside the locket, but she did know what was giving the Hearts their powers.

“I have to tell you something… very important,” she whispered.

Lily’s eyes widened with curiosity. “What?!”

Right on cue, a Heart guard traversed the fields they were working. The two

eleven year old girls swiftly separated and snipped at the red flowers around them and deposited them into their bags strapped across their thin bodies. The Hearts only ate wild poppy flowers, and the Heartless were forced to handle all the planting and reaping to fill their overseers’ breakfast, lunch, and dinner plates. There was no risk of Heartless stealing or consuming the wild poppies as they were fatally toxic to every species but the Hearts. Once the guard was a safe distance away, Ruda discretely slipped her hand into her pocket.

***

“We’re going to be Hearts?” Lily muttered in disbelief, mostly to herself. Ruda watched as the realization truly sank in and spread across her face, “We’re going to be Hearts?!” She squealed much louder this time. She grabbed Ruda’s hands and hopped up and down. “We’re going to be so smart! So powerful! No one can tell us what to do!”

There was no chance of any Heart guards overhearing them now, as they were deep in the woods next to the tree to which her and her late brother had liked to retreat.

“But…” Lily’s logic kicked back in. “… Aren’t you worried it’ll kill us?”

“It won’t!” Ruda shot back. “Don’t you see? They Vanished Rudi before he could get to the poppies and eat them!” She took a breath, “and… before he could tell me,” she added solemnly.

A moment of silence fell between the two girls.

“This better work,” Lily finally said.

“It will work!” Ruda grabbed her best friend and pulled her into a tight embrace. “Once we’re Hearts, we’ll convert our families and we’ll all leave this place, forever.”

Only Hearts could travel around freely without being questioned, so Lily began to feel more optimistic about their futures.

“We better do it now, then,” Lily said, looking up at the cloudy, evening sky. It was sunset and it looked like a rainstorm was coming.

Both their parents would have expected them home from work about thirty minutes ago, but they had gone into the woods instead and Ruda had relayed the event that had led her to this immense discovery that morning…

She had gone into those same woods she and Rudi had spent hours in whenever they had free time. Since her older brother’s Vanishment, Ruda had only been back twice: once after his disappearance, and that morning before her gallery visit. It was the two-year anniversary since his Vanishment and also a big day for Ruda who had grown up considerably since then. What she hadn’t expected, was to find a tiny, folded paper partly sticking out of the soil under their favourite tree. It appeared that a bird had recently dug it up. It contained her brother’s rushed sprawling of a single word… ‘poppy!’ Once Rudi had stolen the locket and discovered the secrets within, he’d hidden in the woods momentarily before they swiftly found him.

Ruda reached into her pocket and pulled out two red, wild poppy flower heads. Lily took one.

“On the count of three, then?” She suggested.

Lily nodded her approval.

“One…”

“Two…”

“Three!” They shouted in unison and stuffed the flowers into their mouths. The toxic flowers that were supposed to kill them within a minute of ingesting if they were Heartless. They chomped down on the bitter matter and swallowed. They stared at each other in silence, anticipating their conversion.

“I don’t feel anything—” Lily began, but then they both swayed and fell on the earth.

***

The days following Ruda and Lily’s Vanishments were the hardest. Immediate family members of any Vanished Heartless were permitted seven days off from mandatory work duties to “expunge a Heartless”, which was the official term for “mourning,” because “mourning” over a disgraced was forbidden. Instead, that week was expected to be spent clearing out all belongings of the disgraced Heartless and expunging all indication of their existence. For Lily’s family, they had lost their eldest of four girls. For Ruda’s parents, they were childless and in danger. The law dictated that any Heartless who’d reached the age of forty and did not have a living offspring would be punishable by Vanishment. Ruda’s father was already forty-one, and thus, having had a living offspring when he’d turned forty, was safe from this law. Her mother, however, was turning forty in eleven months. Through tear-soaked eyes, she calculated that she had one ovulation window remaining for conception that would result in a birth before her birthday, and one more window that might. When they locked eyes, so much emotion passed silently between them, including a desperately guilty wish that their last surviving child had stayed alive for at least another dozen months, and regret that they had not tried for another child after Rudi had Vanished. Ruda was always their well-behaved child and they’d never dreamed she could have done anything to cause disgrace. The couple were forbidden from public mourning and didn’t even have the time for private mourning before they had to endeavour to replenish their lost family with the consequences of failure looming over them. They did not know if they would be successful. To add insult to their devastation, unlike with their firstborn, Rudi, they did not know what their youngest child and her best friend had done to upset a Heart and deserve their fate. They were not permitted any closure.

***

The Heart picked itself off the ground and stood up straight for a few moments. Its thoughts lagging, but finally beginning to come through. Guard. It was instructed to guard. Some Heartless needed guarding and it was its shift. How it had gotten into the woods, it was unable to compute. It took a few steps forward and collided with something that had materialized in front of it. Heartless out of bounds! It went on the defence. But a heart-shaped face swivelled in its direction, identically defensive. Heart. They simultaneously computed and eased. Both Hearts stalked out of the woods, individually, awaiting specifics of their guarding duties.