“STOP!”

And just like that, he was gone.

If only everything in her life could be as easy.

Rue slowly removed her hands from over her ears, half-expecting another question from her love’s heart shard to cut her to the core, but she was greeted only by a welcome silence, and a soft red glow from the black velvet box.

In another moment, she had shut the box and thrown it into her drawer, still shocked and surprised. She stood there for a long moment, trying to catch her scattered thoughts, which were beating against each other like angered birds.

Rue focused on the simple facts. Firstly, she had (somehow) obtained a piece of her Prince’s shattered heart, an event which she had no memory of. Secondly, said piece of heart had then riddled her with questions, which meant that it was the feeling of Curiosity, or something around those lines. Thirdly, she had no idea what to do next.

The ballet student slowly walked away from her dresser and sat down on her bed, automatically drawing her knees to her chest.

Think, Rue. There has to be a logical solution for all this…

She certainly wasn’t letting that heart shard out of the box again. Even though she had done it accidentally, the questions that it had asked her weren’t something that she wanted to think about right now. Personal pain aside, letting the heart shard out would only mean that Princess Tutu would find it again, and then she would return it to Mytho…

Mytho… My prince…

What would happen to Mytho if he continued to gain back pieces of his heart? Would he continue to stay with her? Or would he—

Rue refused to finish the thought. It was silly to even consider it. Princess Tutu, a rival….hah. She had always been with Mytho, and would always love him—he knew that.

Didn’t he?

…The heart shard. Think about the heart shard.

Maybe she could ask Fakir…?

No, that was a stupid idea. Fakir hated her. He never wanted anyone to be anywhere near Mytho, and for someone to openly be his girlfriend…

Also, if something had happened with Princess Tutu and the heartshards last night, it was most likely that Fakir already knew about it. Mytho told Fakir everything. He didn’t understand what it meant to keep some things to himself. And if she had been involved in… whatever happened last night, the odds were that the overbearing best friend knew about that too.

Besides, he probably wouldn’t be much help to her anyway. Even the idea of talking to him on such a subject sounded idiotic. They both wanted the same thing—to keep Mytho as he was, heartless and perfect. They merely had different ideas of achieving those ends.

Which meant that Rue was on her own to come up with a solution to her paradox. She frowned into her knees. The truth was that she wanted it gone, far, far away from anywhere it could find her and pester her with questions that she couldn’t answer…

Who are you?

Why did you bring me back with you?

Why do you don black feathers?

Do you have a special power dwelling within you?

Who are you, really?

…But why would it ask me such questions? Rue’s brows furrowed. What happened last night?

She closed her eyes for a long moment and thought.

Her mind was a maelstrom of black feathers. They closed the gates to her memory on all sides, refusing to let her through.

Don’t look, you shouldn’t see…

But Rue had already found what she had wanted just outside the gate.

Last night…

I saw Princess Tutu return a piece of Mytho’s heart to him. Mytho also wished for its return…

And then… I saw that…

And after that…

What…?

Who…Who am I?

Who are you, really?

Feathers… black feathers…

Everywhere…

“Give it back!”

Red eyes glinting in the darkness…

“I will give you nothing. I will let you do nothing.”

Who am I…?

Rue slowly turned to stare at her dresser. Red light was seeping through the cracks. Her eyes narrowed.

There was only one thing left for her to do, then.

She would keep the heart shard. She would hide it away where no one could find it. Everything would stay the same… Mytho would still be hers, as it was meant to be.

She wouldn’t worry any more about the questions the heart shard had asked her. They were stupid, pointless and a waste of her time.

It didn’t matter if she was someone else. She was Rue now, and always would be.

The red light flared, as if bursting to ask another question, but then faded away inexplicably.