A Fateful Meeting

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.

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