undoing in three parts

in this world, the heart is a box. it has a lock with no key, and a voice with no mouth, and it wants so desperately to be opened and understood. it lives wherever its bearer thinks it will be safe. it can never be opened, by anyone. it’s forbidden.

vena cava’s box is tiny, and she carries it around in her pocket. it’s always with her. she feels so strongly that it threatens to consume her every day.

pang left her box halfway across the world because she doesn’t trust herself to protect it. it’s buried under a banyan tree and the roots almost threaten to consume it.

the gardener opened her box a long time ago, and she flatly refuses to tell anyone what was in it.

a story in three parts.