Excerpt: The Heartless

Viv lost her heart on the Seibu-Ikebukuro line, somewhere in between Shiinamachi and Higashi-Nagasaki. She was staring out the window when it happened, trying to ignore the man shoved up against her on the crowded train, and she felt something tighten in her chest, felt a blossoming emptiness, and she knew her heart was gone. She tried to look for it, but there were too many people, and by the time they reached Ōizumi-gakuen, she had given up hope.

Over time, the loss did not seem so bad; the emptiness inside of her, which had kept her awake at nights at first, grew to feel normal, and eventually she found it hard to remember what it was like to feel a pounding in her chest, to count time by heartbeats.