Prologue

Prologue.

An old lady, a fortune teller, once told me that retribution, karma, whatever you want to call it, exists. Whenever you do something wrong, you'd have to atone for it. Either it hits you, or it hits your loved ones. I had laughed it off, slapping her cloudy crystal ball, in the process, perching precariously on the table edge, and it was almost a hair width's away from shattering into a million pieces. I told her that no such thing existed, for we live in a world ruled by Science and Logic, and not some "spirit" or what not that you feel, or see, coming, just by looking at some fancy tarot cards and into a glass ball. She shook her fragile head slowly, knitting her brows together and forming about ten more wrinkles every second. She rearranged some tarot cards in front of me, and rubbed her crystal ball again. She kept going "mm" and "ahh" and "ohh", but never once looked up at me. Oh, God, what was she doing? I kneaded my temples and took in a deep breath. I can't lose it. I will not lose it.

"Look. You may have all day rubbing your pretty ball and arranging and rearranging your cute little cards but I don't. So will you just tell me whatever you see in my future so I can go?" crap, I lost it. I cursed Heather for winning that bet on our ritual. If I didn't lose I would never have had to come to this stupid "fortune" shop at the corner of the street we live on. I could've won, really, only if I weren't so careless...

"Retribution will come knocking on your door, Miss," the old lady finally opened her golden mouth.

"I told you! Retribution does not exist! God, woman, have you ever stepped out of your cloudy shop?" I whipped my arms around for emphasis, and that incense she was burning went into my nose, "You know, get some sun on your skin. You look as white as the whitening cream my mum uses,", that incense really hurt.

What was she burning? Lavender? Eucalyptus?

"Something horrible will befall someone close to your heart, and it'll be too late to save her. You wanted to but against your better judgement, you let it slip. You let someone you care for get hurt and torn apart, for someone or something for which only you will gain and benefit from. I am sensing her name...", she rubbed her temples and lifted her chin, "It's H-"

I didn't let her finish and stormed out of the store. I don't care if losing that ridiculous bet meant that I would have to go listen to that mad woman predict my future for a full half-hour session, I had had it. It's only been ten minutes but my blood vessels were threatening to blow up my brain any second now. Yeah, right, retribution. What a load of bullshit.

A/N: Finally know how to upload stories here. Reviews are always welcomed.