The Unfinished Fate

Chapter 5: The Unfinished Fate

Annie stood frozen, her mind racing. If the curse was tied to the tree, destroying it might free Sakura—or it might erase him forever.

Her hands trembled. Could she take that risk?

The wind howled, and suddenly, she wasn’t alone.

Figures emerged from the shadows—women with blurred faces, their eyes hollow. The lost ones. The ones who had loved Sakura and been erased.

One stepped forward. "You must break the curse."

Another voice, softer, followed. "Or we will all be trapped here forever."

Annie clenched her fists. She didn’t want to lose Sakura again. But she couldn’t let these souls suffer any longer.

She picked up a sharp stone from the ground, her fingers gripping it tightly.

With one deep breath, she raised it—

And drove it into the tree’s bark.

A scream echoed through the forest—not human, not natural. The ground shook. The wind howled. The petals on the tree turned black and began to fall, swirling around her like ashes.

Then—silence.

Annie fell to her knees, gasping for breath. The weight in the air had lifted. The curse was broken.

But when she looked up—

Sakura was nowhere to be seen.

The morning sun painted the forest in soft gold, but Annie felt only emptiness. The tree was dead, its branches twisted and bare, its petals scattered like ashes. The heart of the curse was gone.

And so was Sakura.

Had she saved him? Or had she erased him completely?

She stumbled back to town in a daze. Everything seemed normal. The people greeted her, the bookstore still had her name in its records, and no one spoke in whispers about a curse anymore. The weight that had once hung over Aokigahara was lifted, as if history itself had been rewritten.

But it didn’t feel right.

For days, she searched for him. She returned to the shrine, whispered his name into the wind, and stood beneath the cherry blossom tree, waiting.

Nothing.

And then, one night, as she sat in the clearing where the tree had once bloomed, a gentle breeze swept past her.

A single cherry blossom petal landed in her palm.

She stared at it, her breath catching.

Her fingers closed around it, and from the wind, a whisper—soft, distant, but unmistakable.

"Annie."

She gasped. It was his voice.

She looked around wildly, her heart pounding. “Sakura?”

No answer. Just the rustling wind. But she knew what she had heard.

Then, as she turned to leave, something shimmered in the air.