Chapter 1: A Fateful Meeting

The first time Annie saw Sakura, he was standing alone beneath a cherry blossom tree, watching the petals fall like dying embers. His dark eyes, filled with something haunting and unreadable, held onto the scene as though he were seeing a memory instead of the present.

Annie should have walked away.

But she didn’t.

She had moved to the small town of Aokigahara three months ago, seeking solitude. Life in the city had been suffocating—routine, predictable, hollow. Here, in this quiet town surrounded by ancient forests, she had found a sense of peace. She worked in a bookstore, lived in a tiny apartment, and spent her evenings wandering misty paths, letting the cool air soothe her restless mind.

And that’s how she found him.

Rumors about Sakura spread through town like whispers on the wind. The people avoided him, crossing the street when he passed, muttering about a curse. They said every woman who had loved him had disappeared. Their names were forgotten, their existence erased from records, as though they had never lived.

But Annie didn’t believe in curses.

One evening, rain poured relentlessly from the heavens, turning the streets into rivers of glistening black. On her way home, she spotted a figure near the outskirts of town, leaning against the very cherry tree where she had first seen him. He was bleeding.

Without thinking, she rushed to him.

"You’re hurt," she said, kneeling beside him. His shirt was soaked, dark crimson spreading from a deep gash along his side.

Sakura’s gaze met hers, sharp and warning. “You shouldn’t be here.”

"I’m not leaving you like this," she insisted.

His lips pressed into a thin line, but he didn’t resist as she slipped an arm under his and helped him stand.

Annie didn’t understand it then, but that moment sealed her fate.

Back in her apartment, she cleaned his wound. His skin was oddly cold despite the warmth of her home. His breath was steady, controlled, though the cut should have been agonizing.

“Who did this to you?” she asked.

“It doesn’t matter.”

His voice was smooth but distant, like someone who had learned to keep the world at arm’s length.

Annie frowned. “You should go to a hospital.”

“No.” His tone was final. “I heal quickly.”

She wanted to argue, but something about the way he spoke made her pause. Instead, she focused on wrapping the bandages tightly.

"You’re different," she said after a long silence.

Sakura let out a short, humorless laugh. "You don’t know what I am."

"Then tell me."

He watched her for a long time, his gaze piercing. "I carry a curse, Annie. Every woman who has ever loved me has disappeared."

She blinked. The townspeople’s stories returned to her. It sounded ridiculous, but something about the way he said it made her uneasy.

She should have listened.

Over the next few weeks, Sakura returned to her apartment, lingering in the shadows of her life. She knew he was dangerous, but there was something about him that pulled her in. A tragic beauty, an aching loneliness that mirrored her own.

"Why do you push people away?" she asked one night as they sat on her small balcony.

"Because the more they love me, the more the curse takes from them." His voice was barely above a whisper.

"You believe it’s real?"

"I don’t believe. I know."

But Annie wasn’t afraid.

She should have been.

Chapter 2: Shadows and Whispers

The first sign of something unnatural came on a quiet night.

Annie had fallen asleep beside Sakura, his warmth an unfamiliar comfort. But something woke her.

A whisper.

At first, she thought it was the wind, slipping through the cracks in the window. But then she heard it again—closer this time.

"Annie."

She bolted upright, heart hammering. The room was dark, except for the pale moonlight filtering through the curtains. The air was thick with the scent of cherry blossoms, though there were none nearby.

Then she saw them.

Soft pink petals drifted from the ceiling, swirling in the air before vanishing as they touched the ground.

She gasped. “Sakura.”

He was already awake.

His dark eyes were wide, his body tense. He reached for her, gripping her wrist with icy fingers. "It’s starting," he murmured.

"The curse?"

He nodded. "It knows you love me."

Annie’s breath caught. "But—I never said—"

"You didn’t have to." His voice was laced with sorrow. "It’s in your heart. And now, it’s claimed you."

The shadows shifted. In the dim light, Annie saw figures moving—women with blurred faces, their hands reaching out from the darkness.

Her body went rigid. "Who are they?"

"The ones who came before you."

A sharp pain pierced through her chest. Not physical, but something deeper, something unnatural. A force tugged at her, pulling her toward the shadows.

Sakura tightened his grip. "Fight it, Annie."

She gasped as the air grew thick, suffocating. Her vision blurred, the room tilting—

Then everything snapped back into place. The figures vanished. The whispers faded. The air cleared.

Annie collapsed against him, shaking. "What… was that?"

"The curse erasing you," Sakura said grimly. "You need to leave, Annie. Before it’s too late."

But she couldn’t.

She had already fallen too deep.

The next day, things changed.

At the bookstore, her boss squinted at her. "Do I know you?"

She laughed. "Very funny, Mr. Tanaka."

His expression remained blank. "Who are you?"

Her stomach twisted. "Mr. Tanaka, I work here."

"I’ve never seen you before."

Her hands trembled as she grabbed the employee ledger, flipping through the pages. Her name was gone. Her records had vanished.

She stumbled back.

Sakura had warned her.

The curse wasn’t just about death. It was about erasure.

She ran through town, calling out to people she had known for months. They all looked at her with vacant expressions, as if she were a stranger.

Annie covered her mouth, her breaths coming in ragged gasps.

This was real.

She was disappearing.

She rushed back to Sakura’s home—an old, abandoned temple at the edge of the forest.

He was waiting.

Tears burned her eyes as she collapsed into his arms. "It’s happening."

He held her tightly. "I know."

She gripped his shirt. "Tell me how to stop it."

A long silence stretched between them before he whispered, "There’s only one way."

"How?"

"A trade," he murmured. "A life for a life."

Her breath hitched. "No."

"If I give myself to the curse, it will let you go." He smiled sadly. "You’ll live."

Tears streaked down her face. "I don’t want to live without you."

"You have to," he said softly.

A cold wind howled through the temple, shadows creeping closer.

Sakura leaned down, pressing a final kiss to her lips.

Then he turned to the darkness and stepped into it.

Annie screamed as he vanished.

And then—

Silence.

Morning came.

The town remembered her again. Her name was back in the bookstore’s records. People greeted her like nothing had happened. The curse had been broken.

But Sakura was gone.

No one remembered him.

His home was abandoned. His name had been erased.

But Annie remembered.

And every spring, when the cherry blossoms bloomed, she sat beneath the tree where they first met, whispering his name—hoping the wind would carry it back to him.

Chapter 3: The path of Forgotten

Annie lived, but she wasn’t sure she could call it living.

The town had returned to normal, her name restored in the bookstore records, and people greeted her as if nothing had ever happened. But something had happened. Something the world had erased.

Sakura was gone.

She told herself it was the price of love, but she never stopped feeling his absence, like a missing piece of herself. Every night, she visited the cherry blossom tree where they had first met, whispering his name into the wind. And sometimes, just sometimes, she swore she could hear something whispering back.

Then the dreams started.

At first, they were fleeting, just flickers of movement in the darkness of her mind. But they grew stronger, more vivid. In every dream, she saw him—standing in the mist, his eyes darker than she remembered. He never spoke. He only watched.

One night, she woke with a start, her breath ragged. A scent filled the air—soft, sweet, familiar.

Cherry blossoms.

Her eyes darted around the room. The windows were locked. No flowers were in sight.

Then she saw them.

A handful of delicate pink petals lay scattered across her bedsheets.

Her heart pounded. It was impossible. The tree was far from town. No wind could have carried them here.

Her fingers trembled as she picked up a petal. It dissolved into nothing at her touch.

Sakura wasn’t gone.

Not completely.

He was still here. Somewhere.

And she had to find him.

Annie spent days searching for answers, but nothing in the town’s history books mentioned the curse. The townspeople spoke only in hushed whispers, and those who knew anything refused to say more.

So, she turned to the only place that might hold the truth—the abandoned shrine in the forest.

It was a place of silence, untouched for years. The shrine had belonged to Sakura’s family, but it had been left to decay, as if the town had tried to forget it existed.

The deeper she walked into the forest, the colder the air became. Shadows stretched unnaturally, and the wind carried whispers that didn’t belong to the living.

Then, through the mist, she saw him.

Sakura stood beyond the torii gate, his form pale, almost translucent.

Her breath caught. "Sakura?"

He turned slowly, his dark eyes meeting hers. But there was no warmth in them, only sorrow.

"You shouldn't be here." His voice was distant, like a memory fading.

Annie took a step closer. "I had to find you. You’re still here—I knew it."

His form flickered, the edges of his body shifting like mist. "You have to leave, Annie. The curse is still watching."

She clenched her fists. "I don’t care. I’ll find a way to bring you back."

Sakura shook his head, pain flickering in his eyes. "There is no way."

But Annie refused to believe that.

Before she could say more, his body faded, dissolving into the cold night air.

And the wind whispered her name.

Annie stood alone, her heart pounding.

She wouldn’t stop. Not until she found a way to bring him back.

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