The Heart of Hearts

The Heart of Hearts 

Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

The heart kept beating.

“Is that a—“ 

“Yeah.” 

“Is it still beating?” 

“Yeah.” 

“How?” 

It was attached to nothing – nothing living, nothing mechanical, nothing visible, and nothing detectable. But it kept on beating. Pumping air. In and out. Making disgusting little squishing and sucking noises as it did so. 

Ian told her a tale. A tale she didn’t want to hear. A tale she was better off not knowing. It was a tale of flesh and blood and blasphemy and unholy things that no one wants to believe are real. It was a tale of incantation and reanimation. Hazel was sick to her stomach when Ian finished. 

“Is any of that true? Prove it.” 

“I have a heart beating of its own accord. What else can I do to prove it?” 

“Things that go bump in the night…”

“Go pump pump pump.”

“Why me?”

Ian shrugged. He didn’t have a choice. “This thing keeps on beating. Mine…” He tapped his chest and his smile faded.

“How long?”

Ian shrugged again.

“Damn it, Ian! That’s…that’s…”

“I know.”

“That’s not comforting at all. I can’t do this life without you. And that thing—That fucking thing is just madness.”

“I know. I know. I mean yeah I get it I know. It’s madness… You’re the best for this. Love you.”

She barely cracked a smile. “Don’t. I’m not in the mood. You can’t die. You know that, right? You can’t die.”

“I have to. I can feel it coming.”

“Who gave you this thing? Where did it come from?”

“You don’t know--”

“Tell me anyway.”

“Do you remember Wyatt from New Orleans?”

“The mage on the riverboat casino?”

“Yeah. Well, he had it once and I had to watch it for a week. And I swear to god, when he gave it to me, I felt like I was a teenager again. And when he took it back, I nearly broke down and cried.”

“What are you giving me? And fuck him. What the fuck? What did he do to you? I’ll kill him. Why couldn’t he keep it?”

“He gave it to a friend who gave it to a friend and that happened many times over until it came back to me.”

“So you’re giving me a death trap? The heart beats and beats and mine will beat younger for a minute or two but then this thing will steal whatever it steals and I’ll end up like you?”

“I used to think that. I think it’s more important than that. I don’t think it’s taking from you. If anything it gives. I think I felt that way just because I was so close to it. I think my problems have more to do with years of bad decisions.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

It was perhaps the most important heart of all time. It pumped the pumping life force of the universe. It kept the planet alive. Existence alive. It was the most resilient organ ever. Ian didn’t know all of that, but he had a partial feeling and enough knowledge to know not to tell her all of it. Not yet, anyway.

“Never. I would never lie to you.”

“If you die, and I find out it was because of this fucking thing, I’m going to destroy it.”

“Good luck.”

“What does that mean?”

Ian had tried. He’d stabbed it, burnt it, chopped it up. It came back. It always came back. Again and again and again.

“It means good luck. I don’t know if this thing can die.”

“But what’s it doing? What am I supposed to do with it?”

“I don’t know. Hide it.”

“Hide it?”

“A handful of people have seen this thing. So another handful has maybe heard the stories. Wyatt always thought there were people searching for it. Those that want to destroy it. Those that want to use it.”

“Use it for?”

One of the times Ian had chopped it up, he had cooked it and consumed it as well. The feeling was unlike any feeling he had ever felt before in his life.

“Eat your enemy’s heart; gain their soul, their power. Eat this heart? Well, you might gain the powers of the universe.”

“Jesus Christ, Ian. What are you doing to me?”

“I know, I know. I have no other choice.”

“You’re dying.”

“I am.”

“I hate you.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want this thing.”

“I know.”

“I hate you so much right now.”

“I love you too.”

He smiled. She wanted to cry. The heart kept beating.